Thermal properties of a water-copper nanofluid in a graphene channel

This paper investigates the effects of a nanofluidic channel width made out of graphene on the thermal conductivity of a water/copper nanofluid. It is shown that in the absence of a particle (i.e., pure water), the thermal conductivity is greater in narrower channels. However, when increasing the volume fraction of solid particles in the system the thermal conductivity is larger in wider channels than in narrower ones. This behaviour is attributed to the particle's destructive effect on the liquid structure at the solid-liquid interface, which is especially noticeable in channels of smaller width. For a particle loading of θ = 2.76%, the enhancement in thermal conductivity for a channel with width of 94 Å is 10% greater than the corresponding one for a channel with width of 34 Å.