Exploitation of Plasmon resonance phenomenon for the improvement of direct absorption solar collector performance / Abdul Rahman Mallah

Direct absorption solar collectors (DASCs) are distinguished from other solar collectors by the volumetric absorption process, where the working fluid directly absorbs solar radiation. Studies have shown that DASCs can increase energy conversion efficiency by ~10% compared with conventional solar co...

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Main Author: Abdul Rahman , Mallah
Format: Thesis
Published: 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/14366/1/Abdul_Rahman_Mallah.pdf
http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/14366/2/Abdul_Rahman.pdf
http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/14366/
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record_format eprints
institution Universiti Malaya
building UM Library
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continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Malaya
content_source UM Student Repository
url_provider http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/
topic TJ Mechanical engineering and machinery
spellingShingle TJ Mechanical engineering and machinery
Abdul Rahman , Mallah
Exploitation of Plasmon resonance phenomenon for the improvement of direct absorption solar collector performance / Abdul Rahman Mallah
description Direct absorption solar collectors (DASCs) are distinguished from other solar collectors by the volumetric absorption process, where the working fluid directly absorbs solar radiation. Studies have shown that DASCs can increase energy conversion efficiency by ~10% compared with conventional solar collectors. With advances in the development of nanotechnology, the concept of volumetric absorption is now feasible. Advances in nanotechnology accompanied by phenomenal discoveries at the nanoscale have made it possible to produce plasmonic materials. Plasmonic materials exhibit distinct optical characteristics under specific conditions. The free-electron cloud of metallic nanoparticles oscillates harmonically with the incident radiation. At a particular wavelength, resonance occurs between the collective oscillations of electrons and the incident electromagnetic waves, which intensifies the photo-thermal energy conversion at the resonance conditions. This phenomenon is known as localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR), which gives exceptional absorption efficiency for plasmonic nanoparticles at the resonance wavelength. There is great potential to use plasmonic nanoparticles in the direct absorption solar collectors. This study provides insight into the LSPR phenomenon of silver nanostructures and an innovative technique is proposed to exploit their capabilities to boost the efficiency of volumetric solar collectors. Silver nanoparticles exhibit LSPR with high intensity, which can be adjusted within a broad spectral band of 300–1,200 nm by tailoring the shape, size, and aspect ratio of the nanoparticles. In this study, the optical characteristics of various silver nano-morphologies were investigated to formulate blended nanofluids that can absorb solar irradiation within a broad spectral range. The finite element method has been implemented to determine the absorption efficiency of different silver nano-morphologies like silver nanospheres, nanorods, nanoplates and core/shell silver/silica nanocomposites. Also, the effects of the nanoparticles’ size and aspect ratio were extensively studied. The results were used to formulate a high-efficiency blended nanofluid with a very low volume fraction of silver nanoparticles. The simulation results revealed that the different silver nano-morphologies absorb efficiently at different solar spectrum bands. Silver nanospheres and nanoprisms with fine-tuned sizes and aspect ratios of 3–9 were synthesized and characterized. An innovative test section was built to validate the performance of different silver nano-morphologies under simulated solar irradiation. The test section allows the irradiance bands that have not been absorbed by the nanoparticles to escape from the collector instead of being absorbed or reflected by the bottom surface, unlike the test sections in conventional experiments. Hence, the photo-thermal conversion efficiency of nanofluids based on individual silver nano-morphologies can be accurately obtained. Five nanofluids were tested under three irradiation densities equivalent to 1, 1.5 and 2 suns. Three concentrations of each nanofluid were prepared and tested at varied Reynolds numbers ranging from around 150 to 750. The main contribution of this work is the formulation of blended nanofluids containing different silver nano-morphologies to efficiently absorb the broadband solar spectrum. The experimental results revealed the promising performance of the blended nanofluids, where the efficiency of the direct absorption solar collector exceeds 70% at a solar radiation concentrating factor of ~2 and a total nanoparticle concentration of 0.001 wt%. The interesting aspect of the blended nanofluids formulated in this study is the remarkable low volume fraction of the nanoparticles, which reduces settlement and agglomeration ratio. Consequently, a higher solar concentration ratio can be harnessed by using the blended plasmonic nanofluids with a relatively low loading of nanoparticles.
format Thesis
author Abdul Rahman , Mallah
author_facet Abdul Rahman , Mallah
author_sort Abdul Rahman , Mallah
title Exploitation of Plasmon resonance phenomenon for the improvement of direct absorption solar collector performance / Abdul Rahman Mallah
title_short Exploitation of Plasmon resonance phenomenon for the improvement of direct absorption solar collector performance / Abdul Rahman Mallah
title_full Exploitation of Plasmon resonance phenomenon for the improvement of direct absorption solar collector performance / Abdul Rahman Mallah
title_fullStr Exploitation of Plasmon resonance phenomenon for the improvement of direct absorption solar collector performance / Abdul Rahman Mallah
title_full_unstemmed Exploitation of Plasmon resonance phenomenon for the improvement of direct absorption solar collector performance / Abdul Rahman Mallah
title_sort exploitation of plasmon resonance phenomenon for the improvement of direct absorption solar collector performance / abdul rahman mallah
publishDate 2021
url http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/14366/1/Abdul_Rahman_Mallah.pdf
http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/14366/2/Abdul_Rahman.pdf
http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/14366/
_version_ 1768007496568406016
spelling my.um.stud.143662023-05-08T20:26:41Z Exploitation of Plasmon resonance phenomenon for the improvement of direct absorption solar collector performance / Abdul Rahman Mallah Abdul Rahman , Mallah TJ Mechanical engineering and machinery Direct absorption solar collectors (DASCs) are distinguished from other solar collectors by the volumetric absorption process, where the working fluid directly absorbs solar radiation. Studies have shown that DASCs can increase energy conversion efficiency by ~10% compared with conventional solar collectors. With advances in the development of nanotechnology, the concept of volumetric absorption is now feasible. Advances in nanotechnology accompanied by phenomenal discoveries at the nanoscale have made it possible to produce plasmonic materials. Plasmonic materials exhibit distinct optical characteristics under specific conditions. The free-electron cloud of metallic nanoparticles oscillates harmonically with the incident radiation. At a particular wavelength, resonance occurs between the collective oscillations of electrons and the incident electromagnetic waves, which intensifies the photo-thermal energy conversion at the resonance conditions. This phenomenon is known as localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR), which gives exceptional absorption efficiency for plasmonic nanoparticles at the resonance wavelength. There is great potential to use plasmonic nanoparticles in the direct absorption solar collectors. This study provides insight into the LSPR phenomenon of silver nanostructures and an innovative technique is proposed to exploit their capabilities to boost the efficiency of volumetric solar collectors. Silver nanoparticles exhibit LSPR with high intensity, which can be adjusted within a broad spectral band of 300–1,200 nm by tailoring the shape, size, and aspect ratio of the nanoparticles. In this study, the optical characteristics of various silver nano-morphologies were investigated to formulate blended nanofluids that can absorb solar irradiation within a broad spectral range. The finite element method has been implemented to determine the absorption efficiency of different silver nano-morphologies like silver nanospheres, nanorods, nanoplates and core/shell silver/silica nanocomposites. Also, the effects of the nanoparticles’ size and aspect ratio were extensively studied. The results were used to formulate a high-efficiency blended nanofluid with a very low volume fraction of silver nanoparticles. The simulation results revealed that the different silver nano-morphologies absorb efficiently at different solar spectrum bands. Silver nanospheres and nanoprisms with fine-tuned sizes and aspect ratios of 3–9 were synthesized and characterized. An innovative test section was built to validate the performance of different silver nano-morphologies under simulated solar irradiation. The test section allows the irradiance bands that have not been absorbed by the nanoparticles to escape from the collector instead of being absorbed or reflected by the bottom surface, unlike the test sections in conventional experiments. Hence, the photo-thermal conversion efficiency of nanofluids based on individual silver nano-morphologies can be accurately obtained. Five nanofluids were tested under three irradiation densities equivalent to 1, 1.5 and 2 suns. Three concentrations of each nanofluid were prepared and tested at varied Reynolds numbers ranging from around 150 to 750. The main contribution of this work is the formulation of blended nanofluids containing different silver nano-morphologies to efficiently absorb the broadband solar spectrum. The experimental results revealed the promising performance of the blended nanofluids, where the efficiency of the direct absorption solar collector exceeds 70% at a solar radiation concentrating factor of ~2 and a total nanoparticle concentration of 0.001 wt%. The interesting aspect of the blended nanofluids formulated in this study is the remarkable low volume fraction of the nanoparticles, which reduces settlement and agglomeration ratio. Consequently, a higher solar concentration ratio can be harnessed by using the blended plasmonic nanofluids with a relatively low loading of nanoparticles. 2021-03 Thesis NonPeerReviewed application/pdf http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/14366/1/Abdul_Rahman_Mallah.pdf application/pdf http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/14366/2/Abdul_Rahman.pdf Abdul Rahman , Mallah (2021) Exploitation of Plasmon resonance phenomenon for the improvement of direct absorption solar collector performance / Abdul Rahman Mallah. PhD thesis, Universiti Malaya. http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/14366/
score 13.211869