Glycerol based binary solvent: Thermal properties study and its application in nanofluids

Nanofluids are of great importance due to the superior performance on improvement of thermal performance. In this work, glycerol (GL) based binary solvent system, including GL/water (W), GL/ethylene glycol (EG), and GL/dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) were studied comprehensively regarding their melting points, boiling points, thermal conductivities and viscosities. Graphene oxide (GO), which was prepared through a chemical exfoliation method, was subsequently dispersed into those solvents to make nanofluids. Thermal conductivity and viscosities were studied to evaluate the performance of those nanofluids. It is revealed that a maximum 20% thermal conductivity enhancement of nanofluid is achieved by just filling 0.6 vol% of GO.