Cloth-derived anisotropic carbon scroll attached with 2D oriented graphite layers for supporting phase change material with efficient thermal storage

Abstract

Organic phase change materials (PCMs) have high heat storage density, but generally have low thermal conductivity, poor shape stability and poor optical absorption capacity, which limit their application in the field of solar heat storage and thermal management. In this study, a novel multistage two-dimensionally oriented porous carbon scroll was successfully designed. The carbon scroll was derived by rolling up the cloth-derived carbon sheet, which was attached with two-dimensional graphite layer, creating greatly enhanced thermal conductive paths along the cloth carbon sheet and the graphite layer. Phase change composites (PCCs) were obtained by vacuum impregnating paraffin into the porous carbon scrolls. The PCCs have excellent thermal conduction and heat storage properties, stabilized shapes and high photothermal conversion properties. In particular, the vertically arranged, multi-level and two-dimensional thermal conductive carbon layers have ensured the greatly improved anisotropic thermal conductivity of PCCs along the axis direction of the carbon scrolls. At a carbon filling content of 28.5 wt%, the axial and lateral thermal conductivity of the PCCs are 7.38 and 4.04 W K−1 m−1, and the thermal storage enthalpy is 157.2 J/g. These results show that the new PCCs have a lot of potential in the field of solar thermal energy storage and thermal management.