Effect of CNT-H2O nanofluid on the performance of solar flat plate collector-an experimental investigation

In the present research, to investigate the effect of CNT-H₂O nanofluid on the efficiency of a flat-plate collector over the conventional one, two identical flat plate collectors were fabricated. The weight fraction of nanoparticles was kept as 0.40, 0.50 and 0.60 wt% and the average particle dimension was 1nm. Experiments were performed with Polysorbate80 as surfactant. The mass flow rate of nanofluid varied around 5lit/min. The ASHRAE standard was used to calculate the efficiency. The results show that, in comparison with water as absorbing medium, using the nanofluid as working fluid increases the efficiency. For 0.5% wt, the increased efficiency was 39%.