Anomalous behavior of liquid molecules near solid nanoparticles: Novel interpretation on thermal conductivity enhancement in nanofluids.

The vibrational changes in the liquid molecules caused by the interactions between the nanoparticles and liquid molecules surrounding the nanoparticles contributed majorly to the increase in the thermal conductivity values of the SiO nanofluids. Because the vibration of liquid molecules is equivalent to phonon conduction in solids, the increase in thermal conductivity of the suspension due to the presence of nanoparticles was inferred to be derived from the limitation of the translational diffusion, which induces a solid-like behavior in the liquid.