Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Bandar Seri Iskandar, Perak Darul Ridzuan 32610, Malaysia
  • 2 Research Centre for Nanomaterials and Energy Technology (RCNMET), School of Science and Technology, Sunway University, Petaling Jaya 47500, Malaysia
  • 3 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia
  • 4 Sustainable Energy and Acoustics Research Lab, Mechanical Engineering Department, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh 202002, India
Nanomaterials (Basel), 2020 Jul 14;10(7).
PMID: 32674465 DOI: 10.3390/nano10071372

Abstract

In recent years, solar energy technologies have developed an emerging edge. The incessant research to develop a power source alternative to fossil fuel because of its scarcity and detrimental effects on the environment is the main driving force. In addition, nanofluids have gained immense interest as superior heat transfer fluid in solar technologies for the last decades. In this research, a binary solution of ionic liquid (IL) + water based ionanofluids is formulated successfully with two dimensional MXene (Ti3C2) nano additives at three distinct concentrations of 0.05, 0.10, and 0.20 wt % and the optimum concentration is used to check the performance of a hybrid solar PV/T system. The layered structure of MXene and high absorbance of prepared nanofluids have been perceived by SEM and UV-vis respectively. Rheometer and DSC are used to assess the viscosity and heat capacity respectively while transient hot wire technique is engaged for thermal conductivity measurement. A maximum improvement of 47% in thermal conductivity is observed for 0.20 wt % loading of MXene. Furthermore, the viscosity is found to rise insignificantly with addition of Ti3C2 by different concentrations. Conversely, viscosity decreases substantially as the temperature increases from 20 °C to 60 °C. However, based on their thermophysical properties, 0.20 wt % is found to be the optimum concentration. A comparative analysis in terms of heat transfer performance with three different nanofluids in PV/T system shows that, IL+ water/MXene ionanofluid exhibits highest thermal, electrical, and overall heat transfer efficiency compared to water/alumina, palm oil/MXene, and water alone. Maximum electrical efficiency and thermal efficiency are recorded as 13.95% and 81.15% respectively using IL + water/MXene, besides that, heat transfer coefficients are also noticed to increase by 12.6% and 2% when compared to water/alumina and palm oil/MXene respectively. In conclusion, it can be demonstrated that MXene dispersed ionanofluid might be great a prospect in the field of heat transfer applications since they can augment the heat transfer rate considerably which improves system efficiency.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.