Electrical conduction currents of a mineral oil-based nanofluid in needle-plane configuration

We present experiments and simulations on the electrical conduction currents of purified transformer oil with and without surface-modified MgO nanoparticles. Results show that on the injection regime of the voltage-current characteristics, nanoparticles increase the charge production in the fluid. It is also found that the conduction currents in the space-charge-limited regime increased at a lower rate as a function of the voltage in the presence of nanoparticles. The numerical simulations suggest electron attachment is increased due to the nanoparticles, leading to larger accumulation of negative ionic space charge close to the needle in the space-charge-limited regime. It is concluded that electron attachment may be significantly increased with nanoparticles, becoming an important process of electrical conduction in nanofluids.