Chinese ink: High performance nanofluids for solar energy

Nanofluids have shown competitive performance on solar thermal collection. This work proposes the application of Chinese ink as nanofluid in solar photo-thermal conversion. The dispersion stability of the nanofluid was characterized by spectrophotometer. Compared with reported Cu, CuO nanofluids, that of Chinese ink has shown more satisfied stability of dispersion. The obtained results reveal that the nanofluid of Chinese ink has surprisingly higher efficiency of photo-thermal conversion than that of Cu and CuO nanoparticles. Carbon black is determined for Chinese ink nanofluid to convert solar photo to heat. Bone glue coated on the surface of Chinese ink nanoparticle also plays a significant role that it prevents the carbon black nanoparticles from aggregation and deposition. The preparation process of Chinese ink is pretty simple and the raw materials are cheap and widely available, which promises the large-scale industrial applications of Chinese ink for solar thermal collections.