Optical property of blended plasmonic nanofluid based on gold nanorods

Present work experimentally characterizes the optical property of blended plasmonic nanofuids based on gold nanorod (AuNR) with different aspect ratios. The existence of localized surface plasmon resonance was verified from measured extinction coefficient of three AuNR solutions, and spectral tunability of AuNR nanofluid was successfully demonstrated in the visible and near-infrared spectral region. The representative aspect ratio and volume fraction of each sample were then calculated from the relation between extinction coefficient and extinction efficiency, which leads to the design of a blended plasmonic nanofluid having broad-band absorption characteristic in the visible and near-infrared spectral region. The results obtained from this study will facilitate the development of a novel volumetric solar thermal collectors using plasmonic nanofluids. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America