LAUSR

ABSTRACT Introduction:  The addition of thermally conducting nanomaterials to any base fluid may enhance the thermal conductivity of the fluid, but the higher cost of production of these nanomaterials limit its use. Therefore, synthesis/production of low cost thermally conducting nanomaterial is the need of the date. Objective The objective of this work is the synthesis of thermally conducting low-cost nanomaterial for development of thermally conducting nanofluids. Methods:  One dimensional Carbon Nanorods (CNRs) have been isolated and prepared from candle soot via the chemical route followed by the development of CNRs based flower-like morphology “Carbon Nanoflower.” In this contribution, we present soot, a very cheap source for the preparation of carbon nanorods and hence is better than other methods of production of CNRs in terms of cost and ease of production. The CNRs based thermally conducting nanofluids was developed for heat transfer application. Results:  The as isolated carbon nanorods with moderate aspect ratio have very good crystallinity and thermal stability; with the size varying from 10 × 200 nm to 500 nm × 1.5 µ, the majority of nanorods with size ~(10 × 100 nm), as analyzed from the TEM image analysis. The size of CNRs isolated was further confirmed by DLS analysis, which is well correlated with the size obtained by the TEM analysis. The CNRs was further characterized by; X-ray diffraction (XRD), selected area electron diffraction (SAED), FT-IR, UV–vis absorption spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and TGA, and results were well corroborated with CNR. Conclusion The low-cost CNRs were prepared and CNR based nanofluid was developed. The maximum enhancement in the thermal conductivity of nanofluid with respect to base fluid (water and ethylene glycol) was observed to be 12%; which is a promising result for heat transfer application.