Enhanced Mass Transfer Rates in Nanofluids: Experiments and Modeling

摘要

Enhancement in carbon dioxide absorption in water has been studied using SiO_2 and TiO_2 nanoparticles using the capillary tube apparatus for which previous results on Fe_3O_4 nanoparticles were reported earlier. Enhancements of up to 165% in the mass transfer coefficients were observed at fairly low volume fractions of the particles. A model which accounts for the effect of particles in terms of a superimposed convection has been proposed to explain the observed effects of particle size, hold-up, and material density. The model provides a good fit to the data from wetted wall column and capillary tube experiment for Fe_3O_4 from the previous literature, as well as for the data from this work.