A team of researchers at Arizona State University have conducted studies to show that graphite nanoparticles can generate solar power.
Robert Taylor, graduate student in mechanical engineering at ASU, says solar panels use only a nanopart of the sunlight they receive to generate energy, while the rest of it emits heat, which damages the panels. The team has developed a solar thermal collector to address this problem. Dishes, panels, evacuated tubes, and towers gather heat to convert water into steam, which powers a turbine that generates energy.
The team used graphite nanoparticles, because its black color helps absorb heat. Clinical tests using nanosized dish collector, showed that nanoparticles enhanced the ability to collect heat by 10%.
Graphite nanoprticles are cost- effective and 100gms of nanoparticles generate the same heat as that of a football field. Soot nanoparticles are filtered out, helping generation of clean green energy.
The research paper titled, ‘Applicability of nanofluids in high flux solar collectors,’ by Robert A. Taylor, Patrick E. Phelan, Todd P. Otanicar, Chad A. Walker, Monica Nguyen, Steven Trimble, and Ravi Prasher appears in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy,
SourceL http://www.asu.edu/