Thermal conductivity of nanoscale colloidal solutions (nanofluids)

Phys Rev Lett. 2005 Jan 21;94(2):025901. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.025901. Epub 2005 Jan 18.

Abstract

Researchers have been perplexed for the past five years with the unusually high thermal conductivity (k) of nanoparticle-laden colloidal solutions (nanofluids). Although various mechanisms and models have been proposed in the literature to explain the high k of these nanofluids, no concrete conclusions have been reached. Through an order-of-magnitude analysis of various possible mechanisms, we show that convection caused by the Brownian movement of these nanoparticles is primarily responsible for the enhancement in k of these colloidal nanofluids.