Enhancing coolant performance using carbon nanoparticles as additives

The mixture of water and ethylene glycol (EG) as conventional coolants has been widely used in automobile radiators for decades. However, these heat-transfer fluids have low thermal conductivity and fail to fulfill the needs of upcoming high-speed and compact vehicles. Nanomaterial additives offer an opportunity to develop new coolants with improved thermal and physical performance. The feasibility of a new class of carbon-based nanomaterial as an additive for coolant is investigated in this work. Experiments were conducted to measure the effect of carbon nanoplatelets on the thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, specific heat, and viscosity of ethylene glycol-based coolants. The addition of carbon nanoplatelets into EG:water at a loading of 0.5 wt.% increased thermal conductivity and diffusivity by 15.7 % and 45.9 %, respectively. The addition of 0.5 wt.% of carbon nanoplatelets showed a viscosity drop of 16.6 %. This reduction in viscosity creates a smaller boundary layer, resulting in enhanced heat transfer and better performance. Thus, the improved thermophysical properties offered by this new class of carbon nanoparticles show promise for their use as an additive in coolants.