Enhanced Thermal Conductivity and Durability of a Paraffin Wax Nanocomposite Based on Carbon-Coated Aluminum Nanoparticles

Abstract

Phase change materials (PCMs) based on latent heat energy storage techniques over a nearly isothermal temperature range have been regarded as a promising strategy to meet the highly efficient thermal management system for electric vehicles (EVs). Ordinarily, paraffin wax is applied as a most widespread PCM especially in medium- and low-temperature storage, owing to a large latent heat that is nontoxic and noncorrosive. However, paraffin wax is limited because of its poor thermal conductivity, resulting in a significant decrease of the heat transfer rates. Here, we present a novel paraffin wax nanocomposite filling with carbon-coated aluminum nanoparticles (Al–C/PW), in which carbon-coated aluminum nanoparticles (Al–C) can form a network, resulting in a remarkable increase of the thermal conductivity. The results show that the thermal conductivity is 0.189W/(m·K) with 4 wt % Al–C under 25 °C, which is about 206.5% compared to the pure paraffin, simultaneously keeping a good thermal durability. Our work pav...