Carbon nanohorns-based nanofluids as direct sunlight absorbers

Year: 2010

Authors: Sani E., Barison S., Pagura C., Mercatelli L., Sansoni P., Fontani D., Jafrancesco D., Francini F.

Autors Affiliation: CNR – Istitutto nazionale di Ottica, Largo E. Fermi 6, 50125 Firenze; CNR – IENI, Corso Stati Uniti, 4, 35127 Padova, Italy

Abstract: The optimization of the poor heat transfer characteristics of fluids conventionally employed in solar devices are at present one of the main topics for system efficiency and compactness. In the present work we investigated the optical and thermal properties of nanofluids consisting in aqueous suspensions of single wall carbon nanohorns. The characteristics of these nanofluids were evaluated in view of their use as sunlight absorber fluids in a solar device. The observed nanoparticle-induced differences in optical properties appeared promising, leading to a considerably higher sunlight absorption. We found that the thermal conductivity of the nanofluids was higher than pure water. Both these effects, together with the possible chemical functionalization of carbon nanohorns, make this new kind of nanofluids very interesting for increasing the overall efficiency of the sunlight exploiting device. (C) 2010 Optical Society of America

Journal/Review: OPTICS EXPRESS

Volume: 18 (5)      Pages from: 5179  to: 5187

More Information: The work has been performed under the \”Industria 2015\” funding of the Italian Ministry of Economic Development. The authors thank Mr. Giuseppe Tognon (CNR-ITB) for kind help with TEM analyses and Dr. Mauro Schiavon (Carbonium srl) for kindly providing the SWCNH.
DOI: 10.1364/OE.18.005179

Citations: 97
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