Issue 7, 2023

Can graphene improve the thermal conductivity of copper nanofluids?

Abstract

Copper (Cu) nanofluids (NFs) have attracted attention due to their high thermal conductivity, which has conferred a wide variety of applications. However, their high reactivity favors oxidation, corrosion and aggregation, leading them to lose their properties of interest. Copper capped by graphene (Cu@G) core@shell nanoparticles (NPs) have also attracted interest from the medical and industrial sectors because graphene can shield the Cu NPs from undesired phenomena. Additionally, they share some properties that expand the range of applications of Cu NFs. In this work, new Morse potentials are reported to reproduce the behavior of Cu@G NPs through molecular dynamics. Coordination-dependent Morse parameters were fitted for C, H, and Cu based on density functional theory calculations. Then, these parameters were implemented to evaluate the thermal conductivity of Cu@G NFs employing the Green–Kubo formalism, with NPs from 1.5 to 6.1 nm at 100 to 800 K, varying the size, the number of layers and the orientation of the graphene flakes. It was found that Cu@G NFs are stable and have an improved thermal conductivity compared to the Cu NFs, being 3.7 to 18.2 times higher at 300 K with only one graphene layer and above 26.2 times higher for the graphene-trilayered NPs. These values can be higher for temperatures below 300 K. Oppositely, the size, homogeneity and orientations of the graphene flakes did not affect the thermal conductivity of the Cu@G NFs.

Graphical abstract: Can graphene improve the thermal conductivity of copper nanofluids?

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
05 ⵉⵏⵏ 2023
Accepted
20 ⵉⵏⵏ 2023
First published
21 ⵉⵏⵏ 2023

Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2023,25, 5489-5500

Can graphene improve the thermal conductivity of copper nanofluids?

G. J. Olguín-Orellana, G. J. Soldano, J. Alzate-Morales, M. B. Camarada and M. M. Mariscal, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2023, 25, 5489 DOI: 10.1039/D3CP00064H

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements