Investigation of nanomaterial-fluid interactions is fascinating as it is indispensable in versatile
areas such as heat transfer, tribology, and gas adsorption. Carbon-based nanomaterials are
notable for efficiently contributing to these applications. But its affinity towards fluids highly
relies on surface atom interaction with the fluid molecules. This also restricts them from being
utilized in their parent form in all fluids. Surface modification by a variety of functional groups
is a key solution that mediates well with the desired fluids to serve the purpose.
This work focuses on using different functional groups for the modification of carbon-based
nanomaterials to enhance the required properties for heat transfer, tribology, and gas
adsorption applications. First, the sonochemical reaction of water with MgB2 has been
studied, resulting in the formation of Boron-rich compounds. Firstly, they have been directly
probed as heat transfer fluids. These compounds are then used to reduce the graphite oxide
to formulate heat transfer fluids that can be used in solar collector applications. Secondly, the
primary focus was on evaluating the tribo-pair interface mechanism using the tribology fluids
formulated with modified MgB2 and Fe3C carbon-based nanostructures. Finally, MgB2
functionalized carbon nanomaterials have been explored for selective CO2 adsorption. The
study includes the adsorption affinity of MgB2 and MgB2 functionalized carbon nanomaterials
towards atmospheric gases (N2, CO2 and O2) at ambient conditions.