Physical Stability, Rheology, Thermal Conductivity and Optical and Corrosion Properties of a Graphene Quantum Dot Fluid

Because of their unique and tunable photoluminescence properties, exceptional physicochemical properties, high photostability, biocompatibility and small size, Graphene quantum dots (GQDs) have received a lot of attention. However, insufficient investigations have been carried out on GQD fluids. In this paper, the properties of a prepared GQD fluid are studied experimentally, involving the physical stability, rheology, thermal conductivity, optical properties and corrosion characteristics. It is found that a highly physically stable GQD fluid could be easily achieved because the selected GQDs are well dispersed. It is also found that the addition of GQDs had a slight effect on the base fluid viscosity, but it could significantly increase the thermal conductivity of the fluid. In addition, the investigation of the optical properties shows that the GQD fluid exhibited high absorption to sunlight. The transmittance of ultraviolet and near-infrared light is close to zero. In contrast, the transmittance of GQDs to visible light is high at low weight concentrations, but significantly decreases with the increase of the proportion of GQDs. The corrosion characteristics of the copper and carbon steel samples in the selected GQD fluid or deionized water were experimentally investigated. It is found that the selected GQD fluid can greatly accelerate the corrosion of copper. However, nearly the same corrosion rate is observed for carbon steel in the GQD fluid as that in deionized water. The high stability, low viscosity, enhanced thermal conductivity and unique optical and corrosion properties allowed the GQD fluid to have excellent potential for applications in the energy sector.