Thermal Conductivity and Viscosity of Self-Assembled Alcohol/Polyalphaolefin Nanoemulsion Fluids

Published

May 2, 2011

Author(s)

J. Xu, Bao Yang, Boualem Hammouda

Abstract

Very large thermal conductivity enhancement has been reported in colloidal suspensions of solid nanoparticles (i.e., nanofluids) and recently also in oil-in-water emulsions. In the present study, nanoemulsions of alcohol and polyalphaolefin (PAO) are spontaneously generated by self-assembly, and their thermal conductivity and viscosity are investigated experimentally. Alcohol and PAO have similar thermal conductivity values, so that the abnormal effects, such as particle Brownian motion, on thermal transport could be deducted in these alcohol/PAO nanoemulsions fluids. Small angle neutron scattering (SANS) measurement shows that the alcohol droplets are spheres of 0.8-nm radius in these nanoemulsion fluids. Both thermal conductivity and dynamic viscosity of the fluids are found to increase with alcohol droplet loading, as expected from classical theories. However, the measured conductivity increase is very moderate, e.g., 2.3% increase for 9 vol. %, in these fluids. This suggests that no anomalous enhancement of thermal conductivity is observed in the alcohol/PAO nanoemulsion fluids tested in this study.

Citation

Nanoscale Research Letter

Volume

6

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

Local Download

Keywords

Thermal conductivity, Nanoemulsion Fluids, Polyalphaolefin

Citation

Xu, J. , Yang, B. and Hammouda, B. (2011), Thermal Conductivity and Viscosity of Self-Assembled Alcohol/Polyalphaolefin Nanoemulsion Fluids, Nanoscale Research Letter, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=908311 (Accessed May 2, 2026)

Additional citation formats