Boron nitride (BN) nanofluids as cooling agent in thermal management system (TMS)

This study reports the synthesis of boron nitride (BN) nanofluids as a cooling agent which contains deionized water as a base fluid via two-step method. A comparative study for BN synthesis has been conducted with (cetrimonium bromide, sodium dodecyl sulfate and polysorbate 80) and without surfactant at room temperature (similar to 25 +/- 1 degrees C) to understand the stability of BN as cooling agent by maintaining 0.001-0.1 vol% concentration. Performance of BN in thermal management system is also studied by determining thermal conductivity, specific heat capacity, and its rheological properties. BN suspension without surfactant shows highest stability (zeta potential value, 30-40 mV) compared to the BN suspension prepared with surfactant. The rheological experiment shows that viscosity increases with increase in BN nanofluids concentration (vol%), due to increase in nanoparticles. The synthesized BN nanofluids without surfactant shows an increase in thermal conductivity by 16.08% at a higher concentration (0.10% v/v), whereas a decrease of 13.95% in Prandlt number is observed at room temperature at a lower concentration of 0.0037% (v/v), indicating excellent thermal properties of the synthesized BN nanofluids as a cooling agent. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.