Photothermal Boiling in Aqueous Nanofluids

Abstract

The process of photo thermal evaporation in nanofluids finds promising applications in solar energetics, medicine and process technology. Previous studies report highly efficient production of solar steam in fluids with gold nanoparticles. In thi article, we establish the process in nanofluids with less expensive carbon black (CB) and iron oxide (IO) nanoparticles (NP). Screening the concentration of nanoparticles, we tailor the nanofluids to reach the efficiency maxima: 66% at 3% wt. (CBNP) and at 10% wt (IONP); the steam was superheated up to 10 K (CBNP) and 16 K (IONP). It was also discovered that the IONPs-generated steam was contaminated with nanoparticles. In addition to experimental results, we have developed an empirical model of photo-thermal steam generation in nanofluids. The model agrees well with the experiments.KEYWORD: solar steam, nanofluid, boiling, carbon black, iron oxide I.