Experimental Investigation on the Thermophysical and Rheological Behavior of Aqueous Dual Hybrid Nanofluid in Flat Plate Solar Collectors

Highlights: What are the main findings? Hybrid nanofluids have been used, including CF-CNTs and the hBN, as working fluid; Successfulness of functionalization and decoration was validated by FTIR, XRD, EDS, FESEM, and HRTEM; What is the implication of the main finding? The thermal efficiency increases to 24.8% for mixed nanofluids; Application of nanofluids may reduce the price of the working fluid. This work investigates the thermal–physical and rheological properties of hexagonal boron nitride/carbon nanotubes (hBN/CNTs) applied to reinforce water-based working fluid in a flat plate solar collector (FPSC). The hybrid nanoadditives of hBN and the chemically functionalized CNTs (CF-CNTs) were suspended in distilled water (DW) with a nonionic surfactant. The hybridization ratio between CF-CNTs and hBN was optimized to be 40:60. The thermal efficiency tests on the solar collector were carried out using different volumetric flow rates (2, 3, and 4 L/min) under the ASHRAE-93-2010 standard. The morphological characteristics of the hybrid nanoadditives were evaluated using X-ray diffraction (XRD), ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy (UV–vis), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Different concentrations of hBN/CF-CNTs were added to the water-based working fluid to record the optimal wt.% for maximum enhancement in the FPSC’s efficiency. The results revealed that using only 0.1 wt.% of hBN/CF-CNTs with a flow rate of 4 L/min remarkably improved the collector efficiency by up to 87% when compared to the conventional working fluid used in FPSC.