A Stable Carbon Nanotube Nanofluid for Latent Heat-Driven Volumetric Absorption Solar Heating Applications

Recently, direct solar collection through the use of broadly absorbing nanoparticle suspensions (known as nanofluids) has been shown as a promising method to improve efficiencies in solar thermal devices. By utilizing a volatile base fluid, this concept could also be applied to the development of a direct absorption heat pipe for an evacuated tube solar collector. However, for this to happen or for any other light-induced vapor production applications, the nanofluid must remain stable over extended periods of time at high temperatures and throughout repetitive evaporation/condensation cycles. In this work, we report for the first time a nanofluid consisting of plasma-functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) suspended in denatured alcohol, which achieves this required stability. In addition, optical characterization of the nanofluid demonstrates that close to 100% of solar irradiation can be absorbed over a relatively small nanofluid thickness.