AbstractIn heat transportation applications, water is most commonly used fluid. The efficiency of equipment used in these applications depends on thermal characteristics of water used. The thermal characteristics of water could be upgraded by suspending high thermal conducting solid nanoparticles. In this paper an attempt has been made to know how the use of surfactants and functionalization of carbon nanotube walls can affect the thermal characteristics and stability of nanofluid. A thorough

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... alysis of collected literature revealed that carbon nanotubes have much higher thermal conductivity than any other nanoparticles and hence improve the thermal properties of water when suspended in them. Further it is concluded that suspension of carbon nanotubes in water requires use of surfactant or functionalization of carbon nanotube walls with proper group. By setting optimum pH and better dispersion, better thermal conductivity is possible. Experimental studies in the literature survey reveal that chemical stabilization techniques and physical stabilization techniques together decide the stability of the nanofluid.