Synthesis and Characterization of Copper and Cuprous Oxide Nanofluids

Abstract

This Research work entitled, ‘Synthesis and Characterization of Copper and Cuprous Oxide Nanofluids’ deals with the single step chemical synthesis of nanofluids, involving simultaneous in situ synthesis of nanoparticles and their dispersion in the base fluid. Nanofluids have been synthesized by a reliable, versatile and well controlled solution phase approach using mixture of water and ethylene glycol as base fluids. Copper nitrate, copper sulfate and copper acetate have been used as precursors for the synthesis. Copper salts have been reduced using ascorbic acid and glucose. Sodium lauryl sulfate, cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide and poly vinyl pyrrolidone have been used for the stabilization of the nanofluids. By varying the synthetic conditions precise control on the size of the particles has been established. The as prepared nanofluids have been characterized by X ray diffraction and selected area electron diffraction technique for the phase structure; electron diffraction X ray analysis for chemical composition, transmission electron microscopy and field emission scanning electron microscopy for the morphology; fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and ultra violet - visible spectroscopy for analysis of ingredients of the solution. Thermal conductivity, sedimentation and rheological measurements have also been carried out. Interesting copper and cuprous oxide structures with octahedral, cuboctahedral, truncated cube, whorled leaf like, flower like, hexagonal disc like and star like shapes have been prepared. It has been found that the reaction parameters have considerable influence on the size of the particle formed and rate of the reaction. The as synthesized nanofluids have been found to exhibit Newtonian behavior. The sedimentation measurements showed that the nanofluids have very high stability. Uniform dispersion of the nanoparticles in the base fluid led to promising increase in its thermal conductivity. The reported methods have been found to be facile, expeditious and cost effective for preparing heat transfer fluids with higher stability and enhanced thermal conductivity