Effect of various metallic nanoparticles on plasmon-enhanced solar absorption efficiency

Abstract

Solar thermal conversion technology has attracted significant attention because it ensures sustainable and modern clean energy generation. The usage of plasmonic nanofluids as the working media is a useful strategy to collect solar energy. In this study, the optical properties of various individual nanospheres (NPs) and nanorods (NRs)––Au, Ag, Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn, Mo, Pb, Ti, Li, and Al––and their effect on the solar absorption efficiency factor (SAEF) with a solar wavelength between 300 nm and 1100 nm are determined using COMSOL Multiphysics software. For NPs, the SAEF is divided into three parts. In the first part with a radius lower than 35 nm, an Li NP has the highest SAEF of 1.3992. In the second part, with a radius between 35 nm and 50 nm, the Au and Cu NPs have the highest SAEFs of 1.1963 and 1.2469, respectively. In the third part, with a radius between 50 nm and 90 nm, the maximum SAEFs of Fe (1.5682 at radius of 75 nm), Pt (1.4914 at radius of 90 nm), Ti (1.4348 at radius of 75 nm), and Mn (1.4614 at radius of 75 nm) can be obtained. Compared to NPs, the SAEF of an NR greatly depends on the aspect ratio (AR) and the effective radius ( r e f f ). We observe that the SAEFs of Ag, Al, Au, Cu, Fe Mg, Mn, Mo, and Ti NRs are much stronger than that of corresponding NPs with the same r e f f . The results obtained from the present study provide fundamental information and guidelines to choose optimal NPs for enhancements in solar energy harvesting.