Title: Stability enhancement of MWCNT/water nanofluids using PVA surfactant

Authors: Saba Rashidi; Luqman Chuah Abdullah; Rashmi Walvekar; Mohammad Khalid; A. Fakhrul-Razi; M.Y. Faizah

Addresses: Institute of Tropical Forestry and Forest Product, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia ' Materials Processing and Technology Laboratory, Institute of Advanced Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Serdang Darul Ehsan, Malaysia ' Department of Chemical Engineering, Taylor's University, 47500 Subang Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia ' Graphene and Advanced 2D Materials Research Group (GAMRG), Sunway University, No. 5, Jalan Universiti, Bandar Sunway, 47500 Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia ' Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Research Centre, (Also Department of Civil Engineering), National Defense University Malaysia, Sungai Besi Camp, 57000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia ' Institute of Advanced Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia

Abstract: Nanofluids are prepared by dispersing MWCNT into aqueous polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) suspensions used as base fluids. This paper investigates the effectiveness of PVA as surfactant in stabilising MWCNT/water nanofluids. The stability of nanofluids is measured by Zetasizer Nano-ZS of only the stable samples. The morphology of carbon nanotube (CNT) and its interaction with PVA dispersant was analysed using SEM and in order to observe the dispersion characteristics of all samples, image analysis was carried out using TEM. The results demonstrated that zeta potential is affected by the concentration of CNT (0.01-0.1 wt.%). The zeta potential values (-19.96 mV to -33.3 mV) increased with an increase in CNT concentration. The SEM and TEM results showed that the amount of PVA added to each CNT concentration is sufficient to provide maximum stability to the CNT-water nanofluids, no excessive agglomerations or significant clusters of PVA are observed from the surface of CNT.

Keywords: carbon nanotubes; PVA; polyvinyl alcohol; nanofluids; stability; morphology; zeta potential; concentration.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNT.2019.107357

International Journal of Nanotechnology, 2019 Vol.16 No.11/12, pp.631 - 639

Published online: 18 May 2020 *

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