In the recent years, the engineered colloidal fluids called nanofluids plays a vital role in many heat transfer systems due to its excellent thermophysical properties, and heat transfer rate. However, most of the research studies purchased the nanomaterials from the suppliers and this involves higher cost which further increases the cost of the heat transfer devices. Hence, a low cost graphite powder is converted into reduced graphene oxide (rGO) and detailed characterizations have been done in this work. An aqua based rGO nanofluids with 0.0005, 0.001, and 0.002 wt. % is then prepared by two step method. The nanofluids are found to be stable up to 10 days because of oxygenated groups on the edge of rGO flakes. The rGO nanofluids show an enhancement in thermal conductivity and surface tension in comparison with the base fluid. Viscosity of nanofluids increases with concentrations and Newtonian behavior is also observed for all the tested concentrations. © International Journal Of Renewable Energy Research, 2018.