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Experimental Investigation On The Plasmonic Blended Nanofluid For Efficient
Experimental Investigation On The Plasmonic Blended Nanofluid For Efficient
Research Paper
a
College of Energy and Electrical Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing 211100, China
b
Shenzhen Kuang-Chi Cutting-edge Technology Co., Ltd, Shenzhen, China
c
Shenzhen Kuang-Chi Institute of Advanced Technology, Shenzhen, China
d
China Ship Development and Design Center, Wuhan, China
HIGHLIGHTS
Keywords: A plasmonic blended nanofluid formed by mixing Au nanoparticles with different shapes in water is proposed in
Blended nanofluid this paper for direct solar absorption. Optical and thermal properties of the plasmonic blended nanofluid are
Plasmonic effect studied numerically and experimentally. Resonant characteristics of Au plasmonic nanoparticles are tuned by
Broadband absorption particle shapes. Compared with single-component nanofluid, the extinction spectrum of this plasmonic blended
Photothermal performance
nanofluid is broadened. The matching of extinction spectrum and solar radiation spectrum is tuned by adjusting
the proportion of components in blended nanofluid. Photothermal properties of three types of plasmonic blended
nanofluids are measured experimentally. Due to the higher extinction coefficient, the blended nanofluid exhibits
higher temperature rise. A simplified heat transfer model is established to verify experimental results. Simulation
results are consistent with experimental results. Before experiment, photothermal properties of different nano-
fluids can be qualitatively compared by using the simulation model, which can effectively reduce the number
and cost of experiments.
1. Introduction [7–11]. Compared with the conventional surface absorption, the volu-
metric absorbers based on nanofluids exhibit much higher efficiency.
Nanofluids are suspensions formed by nanoparticles dispersed in Kasaeian and co-workers’ study [12] shows that the global efficiency of
base fluids. Because of its excellent heat transfer properties, nanofluids vacuum tubes using carbon nanotube-oil based nanofluid as working
as function fluids have attracted wide attention in the past few years. fluid is averagely 11% higher than that of bare tubes. Gupta et al. [13]
The addition of nanoparticles can help improve the thermal con- investigated the effect of Al2O3-water nanofluid on the efficiency of
ductivity of base fluid and enhance the heat transfer performance [1]. direct solar absorber at different flow rates. At 1.5 and 2 L/min flow
In recent years, nanofluids have also been incorporated into solar en- rates, the efficiency increased by 8.1% and 4.2% respectively. By using
ergy systems for direct solar absorption [2–6]. As the working fluids, WO3-water nanofluid for direct solar absorption, the maximum effi-
nanofluids absorb sunlight directly and convert it into thermal energy. ciency of the solar absorber can be increased by 13.48% [14].
Various nanofluids, such as graphite, MWCNTs (multi-walled carbon For the nanofluid-based volumetric absorber, the heat resistance
nanotubes), Al2O3, CuO, Cu, TiO2, and so on, have been investigated and radiative heat loss can be reduced. On the other hand, the
⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (H. Duan), [email protected] (Y. Shang).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2019.114192
Received 28 February 2019; Received in revised form 23 July 2019; Accepted 29 July 2019
Available online 30 July 2019
1359-4311/ © 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
H. Duan, et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 161 (2019) 114192
10mm
of conductive electrons in the nanoparticles excited by incident photons simulator nanofluid container
[15]. As LSPR effect is excited, the absorption and scattering of light
can be significantly enhanced [16–18]. It can be expected that an en-
hancement of solar absorption can be obtained by adding some pla-
monic nanoparticles into base fluid. Therefore, plasmonic nanofluids
have potential applications in the field of photothermal conversion
[19–22]. Chen et al. [23] compared the efficiency of direct solar col-
lector based on different nanofluids. Their results show that the plas- insolution
layer
monic nanofluid (e.g. silver nanofluid or gold nanofluid) has higher data acquisition
photothermal conversion efficiency than titanium dioxide nanofluid thermocouple
unit
since the plasmonic nanofluid absorbs more light under the excitation
of LSPR effect. However, the enhanced absorption assisted by LSPR Fig. 1. Schematic of the experimental setup for measuring the temperature
effect occurs only in the narrow band of a specific frequency (resonance distribution in the nanofluid.
frequency). That is to say, an enhancement of broadband absorption is
difficult to obtain by the resonant effect. 2.2. Experimental setup
The resonant condition of LSPR effect is affected by the particle’s
material, shape, size, structure, and so on [24–28]. By adjusting these The schematic of the experimental setup for measuring the tem-
factors, the resonant characteristics can be tuned. Taking core/shell perature distribution in nanofluid is shown in Fig. 1. The nanofluid is
nanoparticles as an example, the absorption peak can be tuned by filled in a transparent quartz cuvette. Except for the top surface, the
varying the sizes of core and shell [29–36]. Lv et al. [37] noticed a red- other surfaces of the cuvette are covered with aerogel to prevent heat
shift in the plasmon resonance peak from a wavelength of about 600 nm loss. For temperature measurement, the thermocouple terminal is in-
to around 1400 nm for Au coated silicon core nanoparticles. And, for an serted into the nanofluid through an aperture in side wall. And the
equal temperature rise, the volume fraction of plasmonic nanoshell- other end of the thermocouple is connected to a data acquisition unit.
based nanofluid can be reduced compare with that of common nano- Newport Solar Simulator is used as a light source to simulate sunlight.
fluid [34]. It is known that the solar absorption of nanofluids is the key Before measurement, the radiation intensity of the solar simulator is
factor affecting the photothermal efficiency. To achieve strong ab- checked with a standard solar cell. In the experiment, the height of the
sorption over a wide range of wavelength, we consider blending dif- light source is adjusted to ensure that the total radiation on the top
ferent types of nanoparticles into base fluid to form blended nanofluids. surface of the nanofluid container is 1000 W/m2.
Lee et al. numerically verified the feasibility of improving the photo-
thermal efficiency of the blended nanofluids based on four kinds of 2.3. Simulation model
gold-nanoshell particles [19]. Zeng et al. [38] investigated a binary
nanofluid containing multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and The transmittance of the plasmonic nanofluid can be measured by a
SiO2/Ag plamonic nanoparticles, showing good optical absorption and UV/Vis spectrophotometer. The relationship between transmittance
heat transfer properties. In addition to core/shell nanoparticles, particle and extinction coefficient can be described by Beer-Lambert law [40].
shape is also an important factor in tuning the resonant peak. Jeon et al. The intensity of light decays exponentially with penetration depth as
[39] characterized the optical properties of plasmonic nanofuid based propagating through the medium, as Eq. (1) shows.
on gold nanorod with different aspect ratios. As the aspect ratio of
I
nanorods increases, the resonant peak shows red-shifting tendency. = = exp( )
I0 (1)
Therefore, we consider mixing nanoparticles of different shapes to
achieve broadband absorption and make full use of solar radiation. where τ is the transmittance, I is the light intensity, κ is the extinction
In this work, three kinds of Au nanoparticles with different shapes coefficient, and ξ is the path length of light. In the measurement of
are blended together in water for direct solar absorption. The effect of transmittance, the path length of light is 1 cm. The extinction coeffi-
particle shape on tunability of optical properties was demonstrated. In cient of nanofluid can be calculated from the measured transmittance
addition, the photothermal performance of the plasmonic blended na- based on Eq. (1). The nanofluid has the same boundary conditions in
nofluids was investigated numerically and experimentally. the horizontal direction, so that it can be considered that the variation
of temperature mainly occurs in the depth direction. Therefore, ac-
2. Material and methods cording to the experimental setup, a simplified heat transfer model is
established to verify the experimental results, as shown in Fig. 2. It can
2.1. Preparation and characterization of blended nanofluid be described by transient heat conduction equation:
T 2T
Three kinds of Au nanoparticles with different shapes were blended cp +Q=k 2
t y (2)
in water in a certain proportion to prepare plasmonic blended nano-
fluids. The shapes of Au nanoparticles are spherical, star-shaped and where ρ is the nanofluid density, cp is the specific heat, k is the thermal
rod-shaped. The nanoparticles are provided by Nanjing MKNANO Tech. conductivity, and Q represents the volumetric heat generation due to
Co., Ltd. and Nanjing XFNANO Materials Tech Co., Ltd. To ensure the absorption of incident radiation. Since the volume fraction of the na-
stability of nanofluids, cetytrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) was nofluid is very low in the experiment, the density ρ, specific heat cp, and
added as surfactant. The morphologies of Au nanoparticles were char- thermal conductivity k of the nanofluid are assumed identical to those
acterized by a Philips Tecnai 12 transmission electron microscope of pure water [41]. Here, the convective term is neglected because light
(TEM). In order to evaluate the optical properties of different-shaped is absorbed from the top and exponentially decays along the depth, so
Au nanofluids as well as blended nanofluids, the transmittances of these the resulting temperature distribution does not cause buoyancy driven
plasmonic nanofluids were measured by Agilent Cary 5000 spectro- flow [42].
photometer at room temperature. The ratios of absorption to scattering efficiency (Qabs/Qsca) of
2
H. Duan, et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 161 (2019) 114192
0.1cm
0
dy I
H=1cm y
I
rb
0.1cm
Fig. 2. Simplified simulation model. Light is incident from the top, scattered or
absorbed by the nanofluid. The radiation is reflected by the bottom wall with a
reflectance of rb.
3
H. Duan, et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 161 (2019) 114192
3. Results and discussion around 510 nm seen in spherical nanoparticles, nanorods (Fig. 6(b))
possess a high-absorption band at longer wavelengths due to the elec-
3.1. Morphologies and optical properties trons oscillating along the long axis of nanorods. As charge separation is
not great along the short axis, the transverse resonance (along the short
The morphologies of three kinds of Au nanoparticles were char- axis) appears at shorter wavelength as compared with the longitudinal
acterized with TEM, as shown in Fig. 4. The morphologies of nano- resonance (along the long axis) [46]. Similarly, for star-shaped nano-
particles are spherical, rod-shaped and irregular star-shaped respec- particles (Fig. 6(c)), sharp corners promote charge separation, resulting
tively. They can be represented by nanospheres, nanorods, and in a red shift of resonance peak, as compared with Fig. 6(a). Moreover,
nanostars. It can be observed that the size of nanospheres is in the range due to the decreased symmetry of star-shaped nanoparticles, the po-
of 5–10 nm, the diameter of the nanorods is about 10 nm and length is larization mode of electron density increases, so there are more re-
about 50 nm. For the irregular nanostars, the projected diameter is sonance peaks than spherical nanoparticles [46].
about 40 nm. It is known that the plasmon resonant characteristics can Since the resonance peaks are narrow, it is difficult to achieve
be tuned by particle shape. Therefore, we attempt to blend plasmonic broadband absorption using only one type of nanofluid. The particle
nanoparticles with different shapes to obtain an enhancement of shape has an effect on tuning resonance characteristics. It can be con-
broadband absorption. sidered to mix different types of nanoparticles into base fluid forming
The extinction coefficients of Au nanofluids and blended nanofluids blended nanofluid to achieve an enhancement of broadband absorption.
are calculated from the measured transmittance according to Beer- As shown in Fig. 6, the resonance characteristics of plasmonic Au na-
Lambert law ( = I = e , here, the light path ξ = 1 cm). The extinc- nofluids with different shapes are complementary in wavelength region
I
0
tion coefficients of spherical particles can be easily calculated by Mie from 300 to 1200 nm. The extinction coefficients of plasmonic blended
theory [44,45]. Therefore, taking spherical particles as an example, the nanofluids are shown in Fig. 6(d). The concentration of plasmonic
experimental result is validated with simulation. The extinction coef- blended nanofluids is 0.1 g/L, and the mass ratio of each component in
ficients of Au nanofluid measured from experiment are compared with the blended nanofluid as illustrated in Table 1.
those calculated from Mie theory, as shown in Fig. 5. The simulation Compared with the single-component nanofluid, blended nanofluids
result is consistent with the experiment. Since the particle size in the have broader extinction peaks. The extinction properties of blended
experiment may not be very uniform, which has a certain deviation nanofluid are affected by the proportion of each component. For clarity,
from the simulated particle size, so there is a slight difference between Fig. 6(d) shows only three different proportions of blended nanofluids.
the experiment and simulation results. By adjusting the ratio of each component, the extinction peaks can be
The extinction coefficients of nanofluids with different shapes were tuned. With the increase in the ratio of nanorods, the optical absorption
measured by a UV–visible-NIR spectrophotometer. Fig. 6 shows the in waveband of 750–1100 nm is enhanced. Among the three blended
effect of concentration on extinction properties of different nanofluids. nanofluids shown in Fig. 6(d), the extinction spectrum of blended na-
CTAB surfactant was added to the solution to ensure the stability of nofluid 3 is broad over the solar band. An enhancement of light ab-
nanofluids. For comparison, the extinction spectrum of water base fluid sorption is beneficial to the improvement of photothermal performance.
containing CTAB is also presented in Fig. 6. With the decrease of con- The photothermal properties will be discussed experimentally and
centration, the extinction coefficient is gradually reduced. The base theoretically in detail in the following.
fluid water is essentially transparent to visible light and absorbs only a
small amount of near-infrared light. Due to the presence of nano- 3.2. Photothermal properties
particles, the extinction properties are resonantly enhanced as a result
of the excitation of LSPR effect on the surface of Au nanoparticles [15]. The temperature rise in nanofluid can be measured from the ex-
It can be observed that the resonant peaks shown by dashed lines are perimental setup shown in Fig. 1. The nanofluid is illuminated by si-
narrow, and the resonant characteristics are affected by the particle mulated sunlight. Fig. 7 shows the transient temperature responses in
shape. As any change in the shape of nanoparticle affects the pattern of different nanofluids under the same conditions. Because the nanofluid
free electrons oscillation, the resonant frequency will change [46]. As container is small and its depth is only 1 cm, the temperature of the
shown in Fig. 6(a), the resonance wavelength of spherical nanoparticles nanofluid is measured by a thermocouple placed in the center. Among
is about 510 nm in the visible region. In addition to the resonance band the three different-shaped nanofluids, the rod-shaped nanofluid has the
highest temperature rise rate. Under the same conditions, the tem-
perature rise ΔT of rod-shaped and star-shaped nanofluids can reach to
21.5 K and 17.8 K respectively at 1200 s. The photothermal perfor-
mance is related to the optical and thermophysical properties of na-
nofluid. Since the particle concentration is too small, the presence of
nanoparticles has little effect on the thermophysical properties of na-
nofluids. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that the thermophysical
properties of nanofluids are identical to those of base fluid. The influ-
ence of thermophysical properties on the photothermal performance
can be neglected. In this way, the difference in temperature rise rate of
nanofluids is mainly due to optical properties, i.e. extinction properties.
Extinction properties are affected by particle shape, so temperature rise
is also indirectly affected by particle shape.
As shown in Fig. 6(a)–(c), the presence of nanoparticles enhances
the absorption at short wavelengths. While at longer wavelengths, the
spectrum of nanofluid is almost the same as that of pure water. For
spherical nanofluid, the absorption band is mainly located in the visible
region. And, the star-shaped nanofluid mainly absorbs ultraviolet and
near-infrared light. While for the visible light with the strongest solar
Fig. 5. Comparison of experimental and simulated extinction coefficients of radiation intensity, the absorption by star-shaped nanofluid is weak.
spherical Au nanofluid. The simulation result is consistent with the experi- The rod-shaped nanofluid can absorb both visible and near-infrared
mental result, although there is a small deviation. light, and the absorption of near-infrared light is stronger. So it seems
4
H. Duan, et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 161 (2019) 114192
Fig. 6. Measured extinction coefficients of Au nanofluids with different particle shapes. (a) spherical (b) rod-shaped (c) star-shaped (d) blended nanofluid. The
resonant characteristics are affected by the particle shapes (resonant peaks are shown by dashed lines). The blended nanofluids show broader extinction peaks, and
the extinction properties are affected by the proportion of each component.
Table 1
Mass ratios of different nanoparticles in blended nanofluids.
Nanospheres Nanostars Nanorods
that the trends of temperature rise shown in Fig. 7 are consistent with
the extinction characteristics shown in Fig. 6. After all, the optical ab-
sorption properties of nanofluids are the most important factors af-
fecting the photothermal performance of volumetric solar absorbers.
Fig. 8 shows the measured temperature rises in blended nanofluids.
Blended nanofluids are nanoparticles of different shapes mixed in a
certain proportion. The ratios of components of blended nanofluids are
shown in Table 1. Among the three kinds of blended nanofluids, the
temperature rise rate of blended nanofluid 3 is the highest, while that of
Fig. 7. Measured temperature rises in nanofluids of different particle shapes
blended nanofluid 1 and 2 is similar, and that of blended nanofluid 2 is (spherical, star-shaped, and rod-shaped), the concentration is 0.01 wt%. The
slightly higher. It is consistent with the extinction characteristics shown rod-shaped nanofluid has the highest temperature rise rate among the different-
in Fig. 6(d). Among the three kinds of blended nanofluids, the extinc- shaped nanofluids. The difference in temperature rises among the nanofluids is
tion spectrum of blended nanofluid 3 is the widest. The optical prop- mainly due to the extinction properties. The extinction properties are affected
erties of blended nanofluids can be tuned by the proportion of each by the particle shape, so the temperature rise is also indirectly affected by the
component. And then, the photothermal performance is also affected by particle shape.
5
H. Duan, et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 161 (2019) 114192
Table 2
Solar-weighted absorption coefficient Am of different nanofluids.
Blended Blended Blended Rod-shaped
nanofluid 1 nanofluid 2 nanofluid 3 nanofluid
6
H. Duan, et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 161 (2019) 114192
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