Effect of sonication time on the evaporation rate of seawater containing a nanocomposite

Mohammad Mustafa Ghafurian; Zohreh Akbari; Hamid Niazmand; Roya Mehrkhah; Somchai Wongwises; Omid Mahian

doi:10.1016/j.ultsonch.2019.104817

Effect of sonication time on the evaporation rate of seawater containing a nanocomposite

Ultrason Sonochem. 2020 Mar:61:104817. doi: 10.1016/j.ultsonch.2019.104817. Epub 2019 Oct 4.

Authors

Mohammad Mustafa Ghafurian¹, Zohreh Akbari², Hamid Niazmand³, Roya Mehrkhah⁴, Somchai Wongwises⁵, Omid Mahian⁶

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710049, China; Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran.
² Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran.
³ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran. Electronic address: niazmand@um.ac.ir.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran.
⁵ Fluid Mechanics, Thermal Engineering and Multiphase Flow Research Lab (FUTURE), Faculty of Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi, Bangmod, Bangkok 10140, Thailand.
⁶ School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710049, China. Electronic address: omid.mahian@xjtu.edu.cn.

PMID: 31670246
DOI: 10.1016/j.ultsonch.2019.104817

Abstract

Sonication time has a significant contribution to the stability and properties of nanofluids (mixtures of nanoparticles and a base fluid). Finding the optimum sonication time can help to save energy and ensure optimal design. The present study deals with the sonication time effect on the evaporation rate of seawater containing a nanocomposite (i.e., a mixture of multi-walled carbon nanotubes and graphene nanoplates). For indoor experiments, a solar simulator was employed as the radiation source. At first, the nanofluid with a concentration of 0.01% wt. was sonicated in an ultrasonic bath for different times of 30, 60, 90, 120, 180, 240 min, and the associated zeta potential values were recorded to evaluate the stability. Next, the best time function was used to appraise the effect of concentration variations (0.001, 0.002, 0.004, 0.01, 0.02 and 0.04% wt.) and the light intensities (1.6, 2.6, and 3.6 suns) on the rate of solar steam generation. The results indicate that for a concentration of 0.01% wt. and under 3.6 suns, the highest evaporation efficiency of 61.3% would be achieved at 120 min sonication time.

Keywords: Composite nanofluid; Solar evaporation; Stability; Ultrasonic time.