Abstract
Molten salts are used as heat transfer fluids and for short-term heat energy storage in solar power plants. Experiments show that the specific heat capacity of the base salt may be significantly enhanced by adding small amounts of certain nanoparticles. This effect, which is technically interesting and economically important, is not yet understood. This paper presents a critical discussion of the existing attendant experimental literature and the phenomenological models put forward thus far. A common assumption, the existence of nanolayers surrounding the nanoparticles, which are thought to be the source of, in some cases, the large increase of a nanofluid’s specific heat capacity is criticized and a different model is proposed. The model assumes that the influence of the nanoparticles in the surrounding liquid is of long range. The attendant long-range interfacial layers may interact with each other upon increase of nanoparticle concentration. This can explain the specific heat maximum observed by different groups, for which no other theoretical explanation appears to exist.
Highlights
A standard problem in courses on Statistical Mechanics, when the topic is Stefan’s law, is the calculation of the size of a “solar panel” large enough to collect the energy currently consumed by the earth’s population
Heat transfer fluids must meet certain key criteria - aside from being inexpensive. They should be thermally stable at high temperatures
The same is true for their vapor pressure at high temperatures
Summary
A standard problem in courses on Statistical Mechanics, when the topic is Stefan’s law, is the calculation of the size of a “solar panel” large enough to collect the energy currently consumed by the earth’s population. The effect of nanoparticle addition on the specific heat capacity of the fluids, does not yield a consistent picture (e.g., [9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37]). The specific heat capacity of the nanofluid is found to decrease with increasing nanoparticle concentration.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
