High performance blended nanofluid based on gold nanorods chain for harvesting solar radiation

Colloids composed of metallic nanoparticles are promising working fluids for solar radiation harvesting using Direct Absorption Solar Collectors (DASC), due to a high thermal conductivity characteristic and a broad optical absorption that can be tuned to match the solar spectrum. Recently, different studies report gold nanorod (Au-NR) chains for biosensing and photothermal applications, which have broadband and high absorption cross-section and potential possibilities to orientate the nanoparticle using electromagnetic fields. Moreover, colloids with nanoparticles blended configuration show an efficient solar radiation absorption characteristics. Here, working fluids for DASC based on gold nanorod chains in an unblended and blended configuration are evaluated using numerical simulations. The results indicate that the solar absorption increases proportional to the size of the Au-NR assembly, and the best configuration is obtained for a tetramer structure. By using different blended arrangements such as single Au monomers, dimers, trimmers, and tetramers nanorods, it is possible to obtain solar weighted absorption coefficients close to an ideal solar thermal collector, even obtained at low volume fraction (1×10−5). Moreover, the results show an enhancement of the temperature of 58.45 °C for tetramer compared with a monomer structure, both under one sun excitation. Therefore, the Au-NR assembly shows a high potentiality to be explored as a high-performance working fluid for solar thermal collectors.