Preparation and characterization of erythritol/polyaniline form‐stable phase change materials containing silver nanowires

Abstract

Summary Sugar alcohols are promising solid‐liquid phase change materials (PCMs). However, problems such as possible leakage of liquid PCMs, high and unstable supercooling, and low thermal conductivity need to be solved. In this work, a novel form‐stable PCM in which m‐erythritol (ME), polyaniline (PANI), and silver nanowires (Ag NWs) were applied as solid‐liquid PCM, supporting material, and thermal conductive filler, respectively, was successfully prepared in anhydrous ethanol by surface polymerization of aniline. Form‐stable PCM with good form stability could be obtained when the ratio of ME/(aniline + ME) was no more than 78.7 wt%. The melting enthalpy (ΔHm) of the ME/PANI form‐stable PCMs could attain 234.8 J/g while that of the ME/PANI/Ag NWs form‐stable PCMs was about 220 J/g. In addition, the thermal conductivity of the form‐stable PCM was increased by 61.6% when 7.5 wt% Ag NW was added. Moreover, the supercooling of ME was effectively suppressed from 100°C for pure ME to 60°C, corresponding to an improvement of 40%, for the form‐stable PCM containing 7.5 wt% Ag NWs. The supercooling suppression could be ascribed to that PANI provided great amounts of nucleating centers and improved the nucleation kinetics, and Ag NWs improved the thermal diffusivity and thus increased the crystallization rate.

Conferring thermotolerant phenotype to wild‐type Yarrowia lipolytica improves cell growth and erythritol production

“…Erythritol is a zero calorie sugar substitute and has a broad potential market in the field of phase change materials (Jiang et al, 2019; Qiu et al, 2020). Yarrowia lipolytica as a promising microbial host (Liu et al, 2015), has been extensively engineered to upgrade low‐cost carbon sources such as glucose and glycerol into erythritol.…”

Form-Stable Erythritol/HDPE Composite Phase Change Material with Flexibility, Tailorability, and High Transition Enthalpy

“…A maximum melting enthalpy can be achieved as high as 308.52 J/g in the erythritol/HDPE20. We have compared the melting enthalpy of our erythritol/HDPE20 composite with that of other related PCM composites in Table S1 (shown in the Supporting Information), and it can be seen that erythritol/HDPE20 possesses a comparably large melting enthalpy in these erythritol-based form-stable PCMs ,− ,, and exhibits the largest melting enthalpy reported in the literature for flexible PCMs − as far as we know. In order to have accurate erythritol and HDPE contents in the composites, we have employed the melting enthalpy listed in Table in the flowing equation , where x A and x B represent the weight percent of erythritol and HDPE in the composite, respectively.…”

“…Chen et al performed a preparation and thermal energy storage property study on an erythritol/polyaniline form-stable PCM, in which the erythritol loading amounts in the composite could reach 75% and the melting enthalpy was about 260 J/g . Jiang et al conducted further research by Chen et al and added silver nanowires to the erythritol/polyaniline composite to improve the thermal conductivity, but the loading of erythritol was correspondingly lower, and the enthalpy value dropped to 220 J/g . Although these reported form-stable composites can effectively prevent the leakage of liquid-phase erythritol, and the latter composite material has higher phase-transition enthalpy, they all have a common problem that the addition of the supporting material without melting enthalpy contribution would greatly reduce the thermal energy storage density of erythritol and did not have application characteristics such as flexibility and plasticity.…”

Phase Change Materials for Renewable Energy Storage at Intermediate Temperatures

“…One of the reasons for this may be that an operating temperature of over 100 °C requires better stability and compatibility from the shell materials. Confinement has been found to enhance the thermal conductivity, thermal stability, supercooling, and corrosivity of some PCMs. ,,,− For example, encapsulation of a NaNO 3 /KNO 3 mixture into stainless steel tubes and addition of metallic stainless steel sponge to the PCM improved the thermal conductivity of the material . The same behavior was observed by macroencapsulating MgCl 2 ·6H 2 O into aluminum metal capsules .…”