Experimental investigation of the photo-thermal conversion performance of Fe_{3O_{4 nanofluid under a magnetic field

The effect of magnetic field intensity and weight concentration on the photo-thermal conversion performance of Fe3O4 nanofluid (based on water/ethylene glycol, 20 wt%) was experimentally investigated in the presence of a magnetic field. The maximum increase found in the temperature of the working fluid was 22% at 0.2 wt% Fe3O4 nanofluid compared with that of the base fluid. In the presence of an external magnetic field, photo-thermal conversion performance increased with nanofluid concentration and magnetic intensity. For 0.2 wt% Fe3O4 nanofluid, photo-thermal conversion performance was increased by 11% at a magnetic intensity of 750 Gauss compared with the performance without the magnetic field. Furthermore, the maximum photo-thermal efficiency was 39% in the 0.2 wt% nanofluid after 20 min of operating time.