Carbon Nanotube for Solar Energy Applications: A Review

Muhammad Mahmud Jamil; Nor Azwadi Che Sidik; Umar Sanusi Umar; Muhammad Tukur Hamisu; Aisha sa’ad

Authors

Muhammad Mahmud Jamil Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering,Nigerian Defence Academy, PMB 2109 Kaduna, Nigeria
Nor Azwadi Che Sidik Malaysia –Japan International Institute of Technology (MJIIT), University Teknologi Malaysia Kuala Lumpur, Jalan Sultan Yahya Petra (Jalan Semarak), 54100 KualaLumpur, Malaysia
Umar Sanusi Umar Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering,Nigerian Defence Academy, PMB 2109 Kaduna, Nigeria
Muhammad Tukur Hamisu Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering,Nigerian Defence Academy, PMB 2109 Kaduna, Nigeria
Aisha sa’ad Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering,Nigerian Defence Academy, PMB 2109 Kaduna, Nigeria

Keywords:

Solar collector, Carbon nanotube, Thermal conductivity, Nanofluid

Abstract

This paper reports the recent researches of carbon nanotube application in solar collectors. The efficiency of different stationary solar collectors (Flat platecollector FPC, Evacuated tube solar collector ETSC and Direct absorber solar collector DASC) was found to improve with the use of single wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) and multiwall carbon nanotube (MWCNT) respectively. From literatures many comparisons were reported with other nanoparticles, it has shown that carbon nanotube display higher thermal conductivity compared to other solid nanoparticles. Effect of thermal conductivity, stability and production cost of SWCNT and MWCNT was thoroughly reviewed and investigated for application in stationary solar collectors.