Sung Jae Chung

A benchmark study on the thermal conductivity of nanofluids

This article reports on the International Nanofluid Property Benchmark Exercise, or INPBE, in which the thermal conductivity of identical samples of colloidally stable dispersions of nanoparticles or “nanofluids,” was measured by over 30 organizations worldwide, using a variety of experimental approaches, including the transient hot wire method, steady-state methods, and optical methods. The nanofluids tested in the exercise were comprised of aqueous and nonaqueous basefluids, metal and metal oxide particles, near-spherical and elongated particles, at low and high particle concentrations. The data analysis reveals that the data from most organizations lie within a relatively narrow band (±10% or less) about the sample average with only few outliers. The thermal conductivity of the nanofluids was found to increase with particle concentration and aspect ratio, as expected from classical theory. There are (small) systematic differences in the absolute values of the nanofluid thermal conductivity among the various experimental approaches; however, such differences tend to disappear when the data are normalized to the measured thermal conductivity of the basefluid. The effective medium theory developed for dispersed particles by Maxwell in 1881 and recently generalized by Nan et al. [J. Appl. Phys. 81, 6692 (1997)], was found to be in good agreement with the experimental data, suggesting that no anomalous enhancement of thermal conductivity was achieved in the nanofluids tested in this exercise.

High performance robust F-doped tin oxide based oxygen evolution electro-catalysts for PEM based water electrolysis

Identification and development of non-noble metal based electro-catalysts or electro-catalysts comprising compositions with significantly reduced amounts of expensive noble metal contents (e.g. IrO2, Pt) with comparable electrochemical performance to the standard noble metal/metal oxide for proton exchange membrane (PEM) based water electrolysis would signify a major breakthrough in hydrogen generation via water electrolysis. Development of such systems would lead to two primary outcomes: first, a reduction in the overall capital costs of PEM based water electrolyzers, and second, attainment of the targeted hydrogen production costs (<

Cooling Performance of Nanofluids in a Microchannel Heat Sink

3.00/gge delivered by 2015) comparable to conventional liquid fuels. In line with these goals, by exploiting a two-pronged theoretical first principles and experimental approach herein, we demonstrate for the very first time a solid solution of SnO2:10 wt% F containing only 20 at.% IrO2 [e.g. (Sn0.80Ir0.20)O2:10F] displaying remarkably similar electrochemical activity and comparable or even much improved electrochemical durability compared to pure IrO2, the accepted gold standard in oxygen evolution electro-catalysts for PEM based water electrolysis. We present the results of these studies.

Characterization of ZnO nanoparticle suspension in water: Effectiveness of ultrasonic dispersion

This paper describes an experimental study on microchannel heat sink performance where ZnO nanoparticle suspended fluids are used as coolant. The microchannel heat sink has 65 parallel microchannels branched out from an inlet reservoir and then collected into an outlet reservoir. Its fabrication process is based on the standard photolithographic microfabrication technology. A main feature of the heat sink has an array of on-chip temperature sensors on the channel bottom surface along the channel. Thus, the channel wall temperatures are directly measured. Heat transfer coefficient for the nanofluid is measured and compared with that of DI water as reference. The experiments show that the heat transfer coefficient of the ZnO nanofluid is 13% higher than that of the base fluid at the Reynolds number of 3.8, although it is comparable with that of DI water at lower Re numbers. The experiments also show that the heat transfer coefficient as well as the Nusselt number increases as the Reynolds number increases.Copyright