Nanofluid is a kind of new engineering material consisting of solid nanoparticles with sizes typically of 1-100 nm suspended base fluids. In this study. Al2O3-H2O nanofluids were synthesized, their dispersion behaviors and thermal conductivity in water were investigated under different pH values and different sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate (SDBS) concentration. The sedimentation kinetics was determined by examining the absorbency of particle in solution. The zeta potential and particle size of the particles were measured and the Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (DLVO) theory was used to calculate attractive and repulsive potentials. The thermal conductivity was measured by a hot disk thermal constants analyser. The results showed that the stability and thermal conductivity enhancements of Al2O3-H2O nanofluids are highly dependent on pH values and different SDBS dispersant concentration of nano-suspensions, with an optimal pH value and SDBS concentration for the best dispersion behavior and the highest thermal conductivity. The absolute value of zeta potential and the absorbency of nano-Al2O3 Suspensions with SDBS dispersant are higher at pH 8.0. The calculated DLVO interparticle interaction potentials verified the experimental results of the pH effect on the stability behavior. The Al2O3-H2O nanofluids with an ounce of Al2O3 have noticeably higher thermal conductivity than the base fluid without nanoparticles, for Al2O3 nanoparticles at a weight fraction of 0.0015 (0.15 wt%), thermal conductivity was enhanced by up to 10.1%. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.