Abstract
Polyethylene glycol (PEG)/hybrid carbon foam (CF) phase change materials (PCMs) were prepared by integrating PEG into CF via dynamic-vacuum impregnation. The hybrid CF was first synthesized by mixtures of graphene oxide (GO) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with different volume ratios. The morphologies, chemical structures, thermal conductivities, shape-stabilization levels, and photo-thermal energy conversion levels of these composite PCMs were characterized systematically. The prepared composite PCMs exhibited good shape-stabilization levels and showed their original shapes without any PEG leakage. It was found that the polyethylene glycol/carbon foam with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (PEG/MCF) composite PCMs had a better shape-stable performance below the temperature of 250 °C, and the thermal conductivity of the PEG/MCF composite PCMs reached as high as 1.535 W/(mK), which was obviously higher than that of polyethylene glycol/carbon foam with single-walled carbon nanotubes (PEG/SCF, 1.159 W/(mK)). The results of the photo-thermal simulation tests showed that the composite PCMs had the ability to absorb light energy and then convert it to thermal energy, and the maximum thermal energy storage efficiency of the PEG/MCF composite PCMs and the PEG/SCF composite PCMs was 92.1% and 90.6%, respectively. It was considered that a valuable technique to produce high-performance composite PCMs was developed.
Highlights
Nowadays, the grave environmental crisis and the shortage of fossil fuels drive the development and efficient utilization of various kinds of renewable energy
It is clear that the physical properties of a hybrid carbon foam, such as its pore size and adsorption quality, directly determine the Polyethylene glycol (PEG) injection behavior in CF and the thermal energy storage of composite phase change materials (PCMs)
The hybrid carbon foams were fabricated by freeze-drying of a mixture of graphene oxide (GO) and MWCNTs, which showed a unique structure to enhance the impregnation of PEG and prevent its leakage in composite PCMs
Summary
The grave environmental crisis and the shortage of fossil fuels drive the development and efficient utilization of various kinds of renewable energy. Latent thermal energy storage using phase change materials (PCMs) is one of the most widely applied in various fields, including building energy, air-conditioning, solar thermal storage, smart textiles, heat pumps, waste heat recovery, and electronic devices [4,5,6,7,8,9]. All of these applications rely on the distinguished behaviors of PCMs, including their high latent heat storage, usability at larger scales, low cost, and quasi-constant phase change temperatures.
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