Optical properties and stability of water‐based nanofluids mixed with reduced graphene oxide decorated with silver and energy performance investigation in hybrid photovoltaic/thermal solar systems

Abstract

The present work investigates the effect of the nanoparticles concentration on the optical and stability performance of a water-based nanofluid in solar photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) systems experimentally and numerically. A novel nanofluid is formulated with the inclusion of the reduced graphene oxide decorated with silver (rGO-Ag) nanoparticles in water. Five different concentrations of nanoparticles in the range from 0.0005 to 0.05 wt% is suspended in water to prepare the samples. Optical properties are measured using UV-Vis. The UV-Vis absorption analysis reveals that all samples show consistent optical absorption coefficient (α) at higher value (more than 3 cm −1) in the range of 1.5 to 4 eV. The application of optical filtration (OF) using water/rGO-Ag nanofluid in hybrid PV/T system presented more solar energy absorption through the OF. The hybrid system shows better performance at concentrations less than 0.0235 wt% compared to the PV system without integration with optical filtration. The hybrid solar PV/T system with OF using water/rGO-Ag nanofluid is able to produce thermal energy with efficiencies between 24% and 30%.

A Review on Environmental and Economic Impact of 2D Nanomaterials‐Based Heat Transfer Fluids

“…An efficiency improvement of 33% was recorded by merely adding 0.005 wt% graphene nanoplatelet in water. Many reports have also recorded the improved thermal efficiency of photovoltaic thermal systems using graphene and MXene-based nanofluids (Wahab et al [54] & Abdelrazik et al [55,56]). A schematic of such PV/ T systems is shown in Figure 3.…”

Advance Optical Properties and Emerging Applications of 2D Materials

“…Other graphitic structures like reduced graphene oxide (rGO) infused nanofluid were also explored for their optical filtration of solar energy and thermal efficiencies reaching up to 30%. They influence the functionality of hybrid solar cells (Abdelrazik et al, 2020b). In UV-Vis absorption spectra measurements, the hydrophobic nature of rGO improved the dispersion stability.…”

Performance enhancement study of ag@ SiO 2 core‐shell nanoplate plasmonic hybrid spectral splitting nanofluid based photovoltaic thermal system in a temperate region

“…To further increase the performance of the traditional PV/T system and achieve a higher temperature output demand, a PV/T system with nanofluid spectral splitting has been introduced. [14][15][16][17][18] According to these studies, the total efficiency of the nanofluid beam splitting PV/T system improved depending on the nanomaterial type, concentration ratio, nanoparticle size, nanofluid channel depth, and flow rate. Liang et al 19 reviewed the advancements, system progress, and economic benefits of spectral splitting PV/T systems.…”

“…These heat transfer substances considerably lower the surface temperature of the PV system. To further increase the performance of the traditional PV/T system and achieve a higher temperature output demand, a PV/T system with nanofluid spectral splitting has been introduced 14‐18 . According to these studies, the total efficiency of the nanofluid beam splitting PV/T system improved depending on the nanomaterial type, concentration ratio, nanoparticle size, nanofluid channel depth, and flow rate.…”