This article reports on the International Nanofluid Property Benchmark Exercise, or INPBE, in which the thermal conductivity of identical samples of colloidally stable dispersions of nanoparticles or “nanofluids,” was measured by over 30 organizations worldwide, using a variety of experimental approaches, including the transient hot wire method, steady-state methods, and optical methods. The nanofluids tested in the exercise were comprised of aqueous and nonaqueous basefluids, metal and metal oxide particles, near-spherical and elongated particles, at low and high particle concentrations. The data analysis reveals that the data from most organizations lie within a relatively narrow band (±10% or less) about the sample average with only few outliers. The thermal conductivity of the nanofluids was found to increase with particle concentration and aspect ratio, as expected from classical theory. There are (small) systematic differences in the absolute values of the nanofluid thermal conductivity among the various experimental approaches; however, such differences tend to disappear when the data are normalized to the measured thermal conductivity of the basefluid. The effective medium theory developed for dispersed particles by Maxwell in 1881 and recently generalized by Nan et al. [J. Appl. Phys. 81, 6692 (1997)], was found to be in good agreement with the experimental data, suggesting that no anomalous enhancement of thermal conductivity was achieved in the nanofluids tested in this exercise.

A Benchmark Study on the Thermal Conductivity of Nanofluids

Hybrid organic–inorganic perovskites (HOIPs) can have a diverse range of compositions including halides, azides, formates, dicyanamides, cyanides and dicyanometallates. These materials have several common features, including their classical ABX3 perovskite architecture and the presence of organic amine cations that occupy the A-sites. Current research in HOIPs tends to focus on metal halide HOIPs, which show promise for use in solar cells and optoelectronic devices; however, the other subclasses also exhibit a diverse range of physical properties. In this Review, we summarize the chemical variability and structural diversity of all known HOIP subclasses. We also present a comprehensive account of their intriguing physical properties, including photovoltaic and optoelectronic properties, dielectricity, magnetism, ferroelectricity, ferroelasticity and multiferroicity. Moreover, we discuss the current challenges and future opportunities in this exciting field. Hybrid organic–inorganic perovskites (HOIPs) comprise a diverse range of chemical compositions from halides and azides to formates, dicyanamides, cyanides and dicyanometallates. In this Review, advances in the synthesis, structures and properties of all HOIP subclasses are summarized and their future opportunities are discussed.

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Chemically diverse and multifunctional hybrid organic–inorganic perovskites

A review of recent advances in thermophysical properties at the nanoscale: From solid state to colloids

Effects of temperature and nanoparticles concentration on rheological behavior of Fe3O4–Ag/EG hybrid nanofluid: An experimental study

The inclusion compound [(CH3)2NH2]2[KCo(CN)6] exhibits a marked temperature-dependent dielectric constant and can be considered as a model of tunable and switchable dielectric materials. Crystal structure and solid-state NMR studies reveal a switchable property between low and high dielectric states around 245 K. This originates from an order–disorder phase transition of the system, changing the dynamics of the polar dimethylammonium (DMA) cation. Furthermore, the tuning of the dielectric constant at temperatures below the phase transition point is related to increasing angular pretransitional fluctuations of the dipole moment of DMA.

Tunable and switchable dielectric constant in an amphidynamic crystal.

A series of bionanocomposites composed of shark gelatin hydrogels and PLA nanoparticles featuring different nanostructures were designed to generate multifunctional drug delivery systems with tailored release rates required for personalized treatment approaches. The global conception of the systems was considered from the desired customization of the drug release while featuring the viscoelastic properties needed for their ease of storage and posterior local administration as well as their biocompatibility and cell growth capability for the successful administration at the biomolecular level. The hydrogel matrix offers the support to develop a direct thermal method to convert the typical kinetic trapped nanostructures afforded by the formulation method whilst avoiding the detrimental nanoparticle agglomeration that diminishes their therapeutic effect. The nanoparticles generated were successfully formulated with two different antitumoral compounds (doxorubicin and dasatinib) possessing different structures to prove the loading versatility of the drug delivery system. The bionanocomposites were characterized by several techniques (SEM, DLS, RAMAN, DSC, SAXS/WAXS and rheology) as well as their reversible sol–gel transition upon thermal treatment that occurs during the drug delivery system preparation and the thermal annealing step. In addition, the local applicability of the drug delivery system was assessed by the so-called “syringe test” to validate both the storage capability and its flow properties at simulated physiological conditions. Finally, the drug release profiles of the doxorubicin from both the PLA nanoparticles or the bionanocomposites were analyzed and correlated to the nanostructure of the drug delivery system.

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Multifunctional PLA/Gelatin Bionanocomposites for Tailored Drug Delivery Systems

Asphalt bitumens are complex colloidal systems of high viscosity and complex behavior, which are mainly used for making asphalt concrete for road surfaces. Thermal and rheological characterizations are needed to understand their complex behavior, particularly at the processing stage. Prediction of properties at short and long observation times is usually performed through time-temperature superposition (TTS) models, which make use of some calculated shift factors. The influence of crystallization-like transformation processes on the validity of these shift factors is investigated here by temperature-modulated differential scanning calorimetry (TMDSC). Four asphalt emulsions are considered in this work, each one with a specific transformation behavior. The structure-properties relationships are explained on the basis of the transformation profiles and rheological data.

Study of bitumen crystallization by temperature-modulated differential scanning calorimetry and rheology

In some industrial sectors such as naval construction, the use of adhesives is still limited to some specific applications. However, shipbuilders, academia and classification societies are cooperating to expand the field of certificated applications of adhesive joints. As a part of a validation study, thermal and rheological studies of the curing process and of the cured adhesives should be included. While a neat glass transition and other relaxation processes can be normally identified by ramp temperature tests performed both on a differential scanning calorimeter or on a rheometer, there are some adhesive systems in which several glass transitions or melting or crystallization processes overlap. Applying a thermal treatment to delete the thermal history and conditioning are common practices to clarify what happens in complex systems. However, although that practices usually help, there are still some complexities due to overlapping processes that cannot be easily understood. An important point of this work is to show how differential scanning calorimetry and rheology complement to each other in order to demonstrate several thermal relaxations and to obtain a better understanding of the cure process. The use of two different techniques along with a careful election of the setup parameter values allows to better interpret the thermal events. In addition, thermogravimetry helps to understand some rheological behaviors. In the end, this work shows how a good insight of the adhesive properties can be obtained by means of the combined use of DSC, rheology and TG.

Thermal and rheological comparison of adhesives

The aim of this chapter is to show how thermooxidative properties of biological fuels can be evaluated by pressure differential scanning calorimetry (PDSC) and used to correctly classify the fuels studied. The onset oxidation temperature (OOT) is an important parameter for estimating the oxidation stability that can be evaluated by the ASTM method. Nevertheless, in addition to the OOT, other meaningful information can be extracted from the PDSC tests. That additional information provides a better understanding of the thermooxidative process, allowing for identifying subtle differences between similar fuels. In fact, the following lines show that the features extracted from heat flow curves obtained by PDSC allow to characterize and to differentiate each type of fuel respect to the other ones if the adequate statistical tools are applied. Thus, the proposed statistical analysis of the PDSC curves allows to classify the different fuels types chosen for this study: two types of biodiesel, seven different classes of edible oils and two wood species. The statistical study consisted of the application of Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) procedures and the implementation of a simulation study, using parametric bootstrap and methods of multivariate supervised classification as Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA), Logistic Regression and Naive Bayes classifier. Studying the thermooxidative properties of a fuel is important attending to various reasons. For example, vegetable oils are protected against oxidation thanks to antioxidants that precisely removed during the production process of biodiesel. For this reason, biodiesel is not stable, being susceptible to oxidation to a greater or lesser extent due to several factors including the presence of air, temperature, light, presence of hydroperoxides and antioxidants (Dunn, 2005; Knothe & Dunn, 2003; Knothe, 2007). The products resulting from the oxidation of biodiesel can damage internal combustion engines, it is therefore essential to study the oxidation stability of biodiesels. In the case of vegetable oils, they can produce significant changes in the salubriousness of food when the same oil is used repeatedly to fry due to the possible oxidation processes produced at the relatively high temperatures (Vorria et al., 2004). For this reason, the thermal stability to oxidation is an important parameter for oils. The study of thermooxidative characteristics of the species of wood is not as common as

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Thermooxidative Properties of Biodiesels and Other Biological Fuels

The thermal degradation of an epoxy system consisting of a diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA, n=0) and m-xylylenediamine (m-XDA) was studied by both thermogravimetric analysis (TG) and dielectric analysis (DEA). It has been checked a deviation of the typical behaviour in the Arrhenius plot expected for this kind of systems, owing to the thermal degradation.

Carlos Gracia-Fernández

Papers

Multifunctional PLA/Gelatin Bionanocomposites for Tailored Drug Delivery Systems

Study of bitumen crystallization by temperature-modulated differential scanning calorimetry and rheology

Thermal and rheological comparison of adhesives

Thermooxidative Properties of Biodiesels and Other Biological Fuels

Influence of the thermal degradation on the dielectric properties of a thermoset