Preparation of Organic-Inorganic Coupling Phase Change Materials with Enhanced Thermal Storage Performance via Emulsion Polymerization

Abstract

The serious phase separation in inorganic phase change materials, and easy leakage of organic phase change materials are the main obstacles to the practical batch application of phase change heat storage materials. To solve these problems, in this work, emulsion polymerization is introduced as the method for preparing organic-inorganic coupling phase change material (oic-PCM) with high heat storage performance using polyacrylamide (PAM) as the wall material and organic phase change material of cetyl alcohol as the core material, and diatomite is used as a supporting substrate to absorb inorganic sodium sulfate decahydrate (SSD). A differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), X-ray diffractometer (XRD), dust morphology and dispersion analyzer, and thermal conductivity tester were used to characterize the prepared organic-inorganic coupled phase change materials and investigate their performance. The research results show that when the mass fraction of cetyl alcohol is 68.97%, the mass fraction of emulsifier is 3.38%, and the mass fraction of sodium sulfate decahydrate/diatomite is 3.40%. The phase change latent heat of the organic-inorganic coupled phase change material is as high as 164.13 J/g, and the thermal conductivity reaches up to 0.2061 W/(m·k), which proves that the prepared organic-inorganic coupled phase change material has good heat storage performance, showing its good application prospects.

Shape-Stable Hybrid Emulsion Gel with Sodium Acetate Trihydrate and Paraffin Wax for Efficient Solar Energy Storage and Building Thermal Management

“…To overcome the limitations of hydrated salts and PW, organic–inorganic composite PCMs are promising. − The novel materials can be produced by mixing, coating, or microencapsulation. − Typically, hydrated salts and PW are incompatible in the molten state, leading to phase separation and a decreased stability of the composite material. To address this issue, a novel shape-stabilized PCM is developed by impregnating hydrated salts into expanded graphite and coating it with PW .…”

Expanded Vermiculite/D-Mannitol as Shape-Stable Phase Change Material for Medium Temperature Heat Storage

“…D-mannitol is a renewable biochemical that possesses high heat storage density and stability, which can be potentially used as a PCM for medium-temperature energy storage [ 5 , 6 ]. However, the realistic application of D-mannitol-based PCMs is always limited by the high degree of supercooling and the leakage issues [ 7 ].…”

“…Due to the excellent management of thermal energy, the PCMs are widely used in building energy efficient, solar thermal energy recovery, industrial waste heat recovery, and thermal insulation materials. D-mannitol is a renewable biochemical that possesses high heat storage density and stability, which can be potentially used as a PCM for medium-temperature energy storage [5,6]. However, the realistic application of D-mannitol-based PCMs is always limited by the high degree of supercooling and the leakage issues [7].…”