Fabrication and thermo-physical properties characterization of ethylene glycol—MoS₂ heat exchange fluids

This study reports on the fabrication and thermo-physical properties evaluation of ethylene glycol (EG) based heat exchange fluids containing molybdenum disulfide nanoparticles (MoS₂ NPs) and micrometer sized particles (MPs). For this purpose, MoS₂ NPs and MPs (with average size of 90 nm and 1.2 μm; respectively) were dispersed and stabilized in EG with particle loading of 0.25, 0.5, 1 wt%. To study the real effect of MoS₂ NP/MP the use of surfactants was avoided and ultrasonic agitation was used for dispersion and preparation of stable MoS₂ NFs/MFs. The objectives were investigation of impact of MoS₂ particle size (including NP/MP) and particle loading on thermo-physical properties of EG based MoS₂ NFs/MFs including thermal conductivity (TC) and viscosity of NFs/MFs at 20 °C. All suspensions (NFs/MFs) exhibited a higher TC than the EG as base liquid and NFs showed higher TC enhancement values than the MFs. A TC enhancement of 16.4% was observed for NFs containing 1 wt% MoS₂ NPs while the maximum increase in viscosity of 9.7% was obtained for the same NF at 20 °C. It indicates this NF system may have some potential to be utilized in heat transfer applications.