Nanofluids for the Next Generation Thermal Management of Electronics: A Review

Nowadays, the thermal management of electronic components, devices and systems is one of the most important challenges of this technological field. The ever-increasing miniaturization also entails the pressing need for the dissipation of higher power energy under the form of heat per unit of surface area by the cooling systems. The current work briefly describes the use on those cooling systems of the novel heat transfer fluids named nanofluids. Although not intensively applied in our daily use of electronic devices and appliances, the nanofluids have merited an in-depth research and investigative focus, with several recently published papers on the subject. The development of this cooling approach should give a sustained foothold to go on to further studies and developments on continuous miniaturization, together with more energy-efficient cooling systems and devices. Indeed, the superior thermophysical properties of the nanofluids, which are highlighted in this review, make those innovative fluids very promising for the aforementioned purpose. Moreover, the present work intends to contribute to the knowledge of the nanofluids and its most prominent results from the typical nanoparticles/base fluid mixtures used and combined in technical and functional solutions, based on fluid-surface interfacial flows.