Thermal and Rheological Properties of Carbon Nanoparticle Dispersions

Carbon-based nanoparticles are being used extensively in polymers to achieve the special properties. According to their dimension, carbon nanoparticles can be found in four categories: zero dimension or fullerene and nanodiamonds, one dimension or carbon nanotubes, two dimension or graphenes, and three dimensional or graphites. Any of these carbon nanoparticles have specific impact on final dispersion characteristics including thermal and rheological properties. There are several rheological tests which help to characterize dispersion properties. There are a lot of rheological tests for investigating the complex fluids. In this chapter, we will review the most popular rheological tests including frequency sweep and shear rate sweep. For studying thermal properties, rheological experiments are a strong tool in both steady and oscillatory shear for carbon nanoparticle–based nanofluids. We also discuss the effect of carbon nanoparticles based on their dimensions to thermal conductivity of the dispersions.