High thermal conductive shape-stabilized phase change materials based on water-borne polyurethane/boron nitride aerogel

Abstract

Phase change materials (PCMs) applied in energy storage and temperature control system are important for energy conservation and environmental protection. In this work, structure-adjustable water-borne polyurethane (WPU)/boron nitride (BN) aerogels were synthesized via directional freeze-drying method, and used as supporting scaffolds to confine paraffin wax (PW) and obtain composite phase change materials. The three-dimensional (3D) porous thermal conductivity network of BN was derived by the in-situ ice crystal mound in aerogel, which endows the PW/WPU/BN composite PCM-2.5 with high thermal conductivity (0.96 W m−1 K−1) and high energy storage density (140.04 J/g). Shape-stabilized PCMs with high thermal conductivity and excellent electrical insulation prepared by the simple method have great potential for the thermal management of electronic products.