Abstract
Recently, some studies have shown that the light-induced localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) effect of plasmonic nanoparticles can significantly influence the gas–liquid phase change process of nanofluids, but the mechanism is still not clear. In this work, we conducted several comparative experiments and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to investigate the reduction of the latent heat of vaporization (LHV) of plasmonic nanofluids (PNFs) under the impact of the LSPR effect. During the experiments, gold nanofluids with different concentrations were comparatively heated using a heat gun and monochromatic incident lights, and the LHV was calculated based on the Clausius-Clapeyron equation. It is found that when the LSPR effect is excited, the LHV of gold nanofluids with high concentrations can be dramatically reduced by 60.2 % under the combined effect of thermal diffusion and enhanced electric field (EEF). To further investigate the impact of the LSPR-induced EEF on the gas–liquid phase change process of PNFs, a modified MD simulation was used for calculating the LHV of gold nanofluids. The result reveals that nanoparticles not only act as ‘heat sources’ that transfer the thermal energy to the surrounding liquid when the LSPR effect is excited but also can excite the EEF to directly accelerate the motion of liquid molecules from the liquid state to the gaseous state. This work clearly reveals that the LSPR-induced EEF plays a crucial role in both the evaporation and boiling process of PNFs.
Published Version
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