Performance enhancement study of ag@SiO2 core‐shell nanoplate plasmonic hybrid spectral splitting nanofluid based photovoltaic thermal system in a temperate region

Summary Nanofluid spectral splitting photovoltaic thermal (PV/T) systems have become immensely common for the utilization of full‐spectrum. The performance enhancement investigation of the plasmonic hybrid nanofluid spectral filtering PV/T system in dynamical modeling and a practical validation was carried out in this study. The Ag@SiO2 core‐shell nanoplate/ethylene glycol‐CoSO4 plasmonic hybrid nanofluid was synthesized to selectively absorb incident natural sunlight. We used H2O2 as a basic shape‐selective oxidant to synthesize the silver nanoplate using a one‐step method. This approach simplifies seed formation and transformation of spherical nanoparticles to different‐sized nanoplates. A practical study of the plasmonic hybrid nanofluid optical filtering PV/T system was conducted outdoors on sunny days to represent the temperate region and evaluate the dynamic modeling and the system's applicability in real situations. It was found that the plasmonic beam splitter serves as an efficient heat transfer medium and maintains the PV module around the ambient temperature. The highest temperature recorded on the typical day of our experiment was 51.62, 54.34, and 57.56°C for the ethylene‐CoSO4 base fluid and nanofluids with concentrations of 18.3 and 28.3 ppm, respectively, and 33.16°C for the PV panel. The highest overall performance of up to 87.6%, 86.4%, and 85.3% was attained by the spectral filtering plasmonic hybrid nanofluid PV/T system using a 27.3 and 18.3 ppm concentration ratio and hybrid base fluid, respectively. The study shows the nanofluid reduces the electricity output but produces higher merit function values than the PV standalone. This shows that the proposed nanofluid is a potential candidate for PV/T systems targeting utilization of full‐spectrum sunlight and enhancing the overall performance.