Application of Nanofluids for Photovoltaic Thermal (PVT) Collectors: A Review

Abstract

Nanofluids have received considerable attention in the past decades. Nanofluid is produced by dispersing nanoparticles into a base fluid with a typical size of less than 100 nm in a liquid. Nanofluids have been proposed as a replacement for conventional cooling fluid because of their enhanced thermal properties. This review presents descriptions and previous works conducted on the performance analysis of nanofluid?based photovoltaic thermal (PVT) collectors. Results on the performance analyses of nanofluid-based PVT collectors are summarised. The use of nanofluid as a heat transfer fluid in PVT collectors shows enhanced performance. The performance of nanofluids?based PVT collector will increase in terms of overall efficiency compared with conventional fluids. Thus, small and compact nanofluid-based PVT collectors can be manufactured, thereby reducing the weight, energy and cost of manufacturing.