Enhanced Heat Transfer Properties of Magnetite Nanofluids due to Neel and Brownian Relaxation Mechanisms

Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles were prepared through solvo-thermal method for further heat transfer applications. TEM, XRD, TGA, and VSM were applied to characterize the obtained nanoparticles. XRD pattern confirmed that nanoparticles were composed of 6-nm crystallites; however, TEM images showed the formation of ca. 75-nm highly dispersed magnetite clusters, made up of about 6-nm nanoparticles. Since, VSM analysis confirmed the superparamagnetic characteristics of Fe₃O₄ nanoclusters, heat transfer properties of the resulting nanofluids were studied to investigate the influence of the magnetic field on the behavior of the magnetite-based nanofluids. The findings indicated that the convective heat transfer coefficient increased up to 48% and 15%, respectively, for nanofluids containing 0.005 wt% magnetite particles dispersed in water and EG, when the frequency of the alternating magnetic field was changed from 50 Hz to 1 MHz. According to the results, compared to the water-based nanofluids, at higher field amplitudes, the h enhancements of EG-based ones were more pronounced, for instance, at H₀ = 36,000 A/m, the h measurements are augmented by about 74% and 109%, respectively, compared to the water and EG as the base fluids. These findings could be explained by the use of specific lost powers of the nanofluids in the exposure of an external alternating magnetic field.