NANOPARTICLES SHAPE EFFECT ON VISCOSITY AND THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY OF IONIC LIQUIDS BASED NANOFLUIDS

Ionic liquids (ILs) are considered a potential candidate for a heat transfer fluid (HTF) in concentrated solar power (CSP) applications. There are already many CSP sites in operation throughout the world. These complex energy systems use various subsystems such as mirrors and lenses to concentrate solar energy onto a central collector. These CSP sites rely on having a stable HTF in order to maintain high energy storage capacity and to reduce costs. This research seeks to develop a robust set of workable data that can be used to better understand the nanoparticles shape effect on viscosity and thermal conductivity of ionic liquids (ILs) based nanofluids. ILs based nanofluids were prepared by pouring 1-Butyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl) imide ([C(4)mim][NTf2]) base IL and Al2O3 nanoparticles. Three different particle shapes (platelets, blades, and spherical) were used to prepare the 1 wt% ILs based nanofluids. Experimental results shows that the needleshaped nanoparticle provided the greatest effective thermal conductivity compared to the base ILs.