Biotemplating of Al2O3-Doped, CaO-Based Material from Bamboo Fiber for Efficient Solar Energy Storage

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The high-temperature sintering of CaO-based materials leads to the serious decay of energy storage performance during the calcination/carbonation cycle. To overcome the loss in porosity problem, an efficient CaO-based material for thermal energy storage was synthesized using bamboo fiber as the biotemplate. The synthesis parameters (bamboo fiber addition, pyrolysis, Al2O3 loading) and the energy storage reaction characteristics of CaO-based energy storage material were optimized on the basis of cyclic calcination/carbonation experiments. The results show that the sacrificed biotemplate enhances the porosity of the synthetic material, denoting improved energy storage density. The cumulative energy storage density of the templated material over 50 cycles is 24,131.44 kJ/kg higher than that of limestone. The carbonation conversion and energy storage density of the templated CaO-based material doped with 5 wt.% Al2O3 and 0.5 g bamboo fiber reach 0.75 mol/mol and 2368.82 kJ/kg after 10 cycles, respectively, which is 2.7 times as high as that of original limestone. The maximum apparent carbonation rate of the templated CaO-based materials in the 1st cycle corresponds to a 240% increment compared to limestone. The maximum calcination rate of the synthetic CaO-based material in the 12th cycle remains 93%, as compared with the initial cycle. The microstructure analysis reveals that the hierarchically-stable structure during the cycle is beneficial for a more effective exposure of surface reactive sites for CaO and inward/outward diffusion for CO2 molecules through CaO. The method using the sacrificed biological template provides an advanced approach to fabricate porous materials, and the composite CaO-based material provides high-return solar energy storage for a potential application in industrial scale.