Novel water-based composite phase change materials for cold energy storage applications

Yali Liu, Ying Zhang, Ming Li, Yunfeng Wang, Guoliang Li, Qiongfen Yu, Runsheng Tang, Xintian Yang and Xin Li

Renewable Energy, 2025, vol. 240, issue C

Abstract: Water-based phase change materials (PCMs) are considered a promising cold energy storage material considering their high latent heat and adjustable phase change temperature. However, low thermal conductivity limits its application. Expanded graphite (EG) can effectively enhance the thermal conductivity of organic PCMs, while the hydrophobic significantly hinders the improvement of water-based PCMs's thermal conductivity. Thus, to improve the compatibility between EG and water-based PCMs, sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SDBS) was used as a modifier, and a non-covalent functionalization method was employed to prepare modified expanded graphite (SMEG) in this study. Subsequently, novel water-based PCMs (SMEG3/GMP) were prepared through melt blending with GMP PCM. Findings indicated that SMEG3 demonstrated the highest compatibility with GMP PCM, resulting in an increase in adsorption capacity from 65.48 % to 78.41 %. SMEG3 with a mass fraction of 16 wt% exhibited excellent encapsulation capability for GMP PCM. The prepared SMEG3/GMP CPCMs displayed a suitable melting temperature (−5.70 °C) and high melting latent heat (241.19 J/g). Notably, thermal conductivity was measured at 3.75 W/(m·K), demonstrating a 441.7 % increase compared to GMP PCM. After 100 thermal cycles, only minor fluctuations in melting temperature and latent heat were observed. The developed novel water-based CPCMs demonstrate significant potential for cold energy storage applications.

Keywords: Modified expanded graphite; Phase change material; Cold energy storage; Thermal properties (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:240:y:2025:i:c:s0960148124022420

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2024.122174

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