SiC Nanowires with Tunable Hydrophobicity/Hydrophilicity and Their Application as Nanofluids

In this paper, several methods including HF, NaOH, TEOS, and PVP treatment were adopted to modify the wettability of silicon carbide (SiC) nanowires switching from hydrophobic to hydrophilic. The phase and microstructure investigated by XRD, FT-IR, XPS, TGA, SEM, and TEM demonstrated SiC nanowires switching from hydrophobic to hydrophilic due to the surface-tethered hydrophilic layer as well as increasing interspace between nanowires. Besides this, SiC nanowires with hydrophilicity may effectively improve the thermal conductivity of a fluid. The thermal conductivity of aqueous SiC nanowires after TEOS treatment with just 0.3 vol % was remarkably improved up to ca. 13.0%.