XPS and material properties of raw and oxidized carbide-derived carbon and their application in antifreeze thermal fluids/nanofluids

In this study, the stability, thermal conductivity and viscosity of carbide-derived carbon antifreeze thermal fluids were explored. The study also compares the results between antifreeze suspensions prepared using oxidized CDC and emulsified CDC using gum arabic. At first, the raw CDC was oxidized with oxygen by acid treatment and the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results revealed an increase in the oxygen content and oxygen functional groups in oxidized CDC. The two-step method was utilized for CDC thermal fluids preparation. Sedimentation visualization and zeta potential testing were employed to investigate stability of nanofluids with time. The stability results revealed that the oxidized CDC has better stability and higher zeta potential values than the emulsified CDCs; however, both mixtures demonstrated stable suspensions for three months. Viscosity measurements showed that the gum arabic CDC suspensions have a higher viscosity than the oxidized CDC; the viscosity was growing with CDC and gum arabic loadings and decreased with temperature. The thermal conductivity analysis was carried out using a lambda analyzer in a temperature range of 288–338 K with a CDC mass loading range of 0.05–0.3 mass%. The experimental outcomes demonstrated that oxidized CDC suspension has better thermal conductivity than gum arabic emulsified CDC. The highest improvement in thermal conductivity was 25.6% using 0.3 mass% of oxidized CDC at 338 K. Moreover, raising the gum arabic mass loading was found to reduce the thermal conductivity enhancement. Therefore, according to the results, the oxidized CDC antifreeze suspensions can perform better than the emulsified CDC. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.]