Toward TiO2 Nanofluids—Part 1: Preparation and Properties

As a new generation of working fluid, nanofluid has long been regarded as a hot research topic in the past three decades. Many review papers have provided comprehensive and systematic summaries on the development and state-of-the-art of nanofluids. As of today, it is becoming increasingly difficult to provide a comprehensive review of all kinds of nanofluids owing to the huge amounts of the related literatures. And many controversies and inconsistencies in the reported arguments have been observed in various nanofluids. Meanwhile, the systematic or comprehensive reviews on a certain kind of nanofluid are insufficient. Therefore, this review focuses on the research about one of the hottest kinds viz. TiO2 nanofluid, which has captured scientists’ great attention because of its interesting and comprehensive properties such as sensational dispersivity, chemical stability, and non-toxicity. Due to the preparation of nanofluids is the prerequisite and physical properties are critical factors for further applications, this first part of the review summarizes recent research on preparation, stability, and physical properties of TiO2 nanofluids.