Nanofluids

OBJECTIVES and CONTEXT:

Nanotechnology is rapidly growing from agriculture to water treatment to energy storage. Solar
collectors are used for process heat application which uses a liquid such as water or oil as the
base fluid. The liquid used should have a high thermal conductivity, high heat transfer
coefficient, high specific heat capacity and high critical heat flux for carrying a maximum
amount of heat from the collector. Using conventional fluids, it may not possible to have all the
above characteristics. Thus, Solar energy conversion systems are facing the problem of having
low optical and thermal performance. Hence, there is a need to improve the thermal and optical
performance of these systems.

This can be possible by introducing and mixing some amount of nanoparticles in the base fluid
and can be used as an advanced heat transfer fluid. Thus, Nanofluid is a novel kind of heat
transport medium, containing nanoparticles of a metal or metal oxide of 1–100 nm which are
uniformly and stably dispersed in a base fluid.

Nanocomposites are the materials that consist of a bulk matrix and nano-dimensional phase(s)
differing in properties. The nanocomposites can be used as thin film coatings on the reflector and
the absorber surfaces of solar concentrators to enhance the optical properties of the substrate
material. Thus the conversion efficiencies of solar systems can possibly be enhanced by using a
nanofluid as the heat transfer medium and a nanocomposite as the selective coating.