Nizar Jawad Hadi - Assist Prof., University of Babylon
Dhey Jawad Mohamed - Assist Lecture, University of Babylon

This research studies the agglomeration behavior through the viscosity, density, surface tension, optical and microstructure properties of zinc oxide (ZnO)-waste polystyrene nanofluid. The nanofluid prepared by dissolving the waste polystyrene in the toluene solvent then mixed with 0.1, 0.3, 0.6, 0.9 and 1.2 wt% of ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) using sonication process. The x-ray diffraction XRD and atomic force microscopy AFM are used to characterize the ZnO NPs. Cone-plate viscometer and tensiometer are used to examine the viscosity and surface tension of the nanofluid. UV- visible and light microscopy are used to check the optical and microstructure properties of the nanofluid. The results show that the viscosity and density decrease at lower ratios then increased at high ratio of ZnO NPs, while the surface tension increases at lower ratios then increases at higher ratios of ZnO NPs. The UV visible shows that the blue shift peak of Plasmon surface resonance produces at 0.1 of ZnO NPs then red shift increased progressively up to 1.2 of ZnO NPs. The images of the optical microscopy indicate lower agglomeration at 0.1 of ZnO NPs compared with the other ratios. There is strong relation obtained between physical and morphological tests to analyze the agglomeration mechanism occur in the waste polystyrene nanofluid. In general physical properties can be used to predicate the morphological properties and vice versa.

Waste polystyrene, ZnO NPs, nanofluid, physical properties, microstructure