Effect of Fullerene Additives on the Optical and Thermodynamic Properties of Eicosane

Nowadays nanomaterials are increasingly used in energy equipment as the working fluids, thermal storage materials and heat transfer fluids. Nanoparticle additives in the liquid and solid phases significantly change the optical and thermophysical properties of base materials. However, the mechanism of influence of the nanoparticles on the optical and thermophysical properties of the base substances remains insufficiently studied. The main problems in study the influence of nanoparticles on the properties of base materials are the aggregate stability of nanomaterials prepared by various technologies and lack of comprehensive studies for various optical and thermophysical properties for the identical samples of nanomaterials. In order to eliminate these issues, we performed comprehensive studies of the properties for the model thermodynamic system eicosane/fullerene C<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">60</inf>, which in the liquid phase is a stable molecular solution. New information on the temperature and concentration dependences of the refractive index, light transmittance (at different wavelengths), heat capacity and enthalpy difference during the phase transition have been obtained. It has been shown that changes in the optical and thermophysical properties of eicosane/fullerene C<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">60</inf> solutions are determined not only by the concentration, size and shape of nanoparticles. A significant contribution to the change in thermophysical properties is made by changes in the structure of eicosane under the influence of fullerene additives. The influence of structural changes in eicosane under the influence of fullerene additives on its thermophysical properties was examined.