Nanofluids have opened the doors towards the enhancement of many of today’s existing thermal applications performance. This is because these advanced working fluids exhibit exceptional thermophysical properties, and thus making them excellent candidates for replacing conventional working fluids. On the other hand, nanomaterials of carbon-base were proven throughout the literature to have the highest thermal conductivity among all other types of nanoscaled materials. Therefore, when these materials are homogeneously dispersed in a base fluid, the resulting suspension will theoretically attain orders of magnitude higher effective thermal conductivity than its counterpart. Despite this fact, there are still some challenges that are associated with these types of fluids. The main obstacle is the dispersion stability of the nanomaterials, which can lead the attractive properties of the nanofluid to degrade with time, up to the point where they lose their effectiveness. For such reason, this work has been devoted towards providing a systematic review on nanofluids of carbon-base, precisely; carbon nanotubes, graphene, and nanodiamonds, and their employment in thermal systems commonly used in the energy sectors. Firstly, this work reviews the synthesis approaches of the carbon-based feedstock. Then, it explains the different nanofluids fabrication methods. The dispersion stability is also discussed in terms of measuring techniques, enhancement methods, and its effect on the suspension thermophysical properties. The study summarizes the development in the correlations used to predict the thermophysical properties of the dispersion. Furthermore, it assesses the influence of these advanced working fluids on parabolic trough solar collectors, nuclear reactor systems, and air conditioning and refrigeration systems. Lastly, the current gap in scientific knowledge is provided to set up future research directions.

Plasma-facing components (PFCs) are used as the barrier to the beam of high heat flux generated due to nuclear fusion. Therefore, efficient cooling of PFCs is required for safety and smooth operation of a fusion reactor. The Hyper Vapotron (HV) is generally used as the heat exchanger to cool down the PFCs during operation. These heat exchangers use pool and flow boiling mechanisms, and hence, their ability is inherently constrained by critical heat flux (CHF). The boiling of nanofluid is very promising as the working fluid in the HV. The efficiency of the HV increases due to the increase in CHF by applying nanofluids. However, the feasibility of nanofluid cooling in fusion reactors needs proper understanding. This paper reviews the recent developments in the utilization of boiling phenomena in nanofluid as a coolant in the HV. Experiments, theoretical studies, significant achievements, and challenges are analyzed and discussed. Finally, important points are indicated for future research.

An experimental study to investigate the thermal performance of water/titania (TiO₂) nanofluid under nucleate pool boiling was performed. A highly stable water/TiO₂ nanofluid with varying weight concentrations of 0.15–1.5% was prepared with the application of polyvinyl alcohol as a surfactant. A dynamic light scattering and zeta potential analyses were performed to confirm the stability of the nanofluids. The effects of varying heat flux and weight concentration on the boiling characteristics and nucleate pool boiling heat transfer coefficient (h_NPB) were studied. According to the findings, the h_NPB increased as heat flow and weight concentration increased. However, at a higher weight concentration of 1.5%, the enhancement was reduced. The highest enhancement in h_NPB of nanofluids was found to be 78.76% with 0.50% weight concentration as compared to water. At the highest wall superheat of ∼16 K, the enhancement almost reduced 71.10% with 1.5% weight concentration. The drop in h_NPB was ascribed to the deposition of TiO₂ nanoparticles on the heated surface during the boiling process, which resulted in a reduction in nucleation site density. New correlations of high prediction accuracies (R² > 99.90%) are proposed to relate the wall superheat temperature with heat flux and h_NPB.