Effect of Fullerene Additives on the Optical and Thermodynamic Properties of Eicosane

Nowadays, nanomaterials are increasingly used in power equipment as the working fluids, thermal storage materials and heat transfer media. Additives of nanoparticles in the liquid and solid phases significantly change the optical and thermophysical properties of basic materials. However, the mechanism of nanoparticles influence on the optical and thermophysical properties of the basic fluids is still insufficiently examined. The main problems in studying the effect of nanoparticles on the properties of basic materials are the aggregative stability of nanomaterials obtained using different methods as well as lack of comprehensive studies of different optical and thermophysical properties for identical samples of the nanomaterials. In order to solve this question a comprehensive investigation of the properties for the model thermodynamic system eicosane/fullerene C60 that is a stable molecular solution was performed. New experimental information on the temperature and concentration dependences for the refractive index, light transmission coefficients (at the different wavelengths), viscosity, heat capacity and enthalpy difference at the diffuse phase transition have been obtained. It was shown that changes in the optical and thermophysical properties for the eicosane/ fullerene C60 solutions are determined not only by concentration, size and shape of nanoparticles but also by changes in the structure of eicosane due to presence of the fullerene additives. The structural changes in eicosane related to fullerene additives were investigated by X-ray diffraction experiment and structural analysis.