Improved Anisotropic Thermal Transfer Property of Form-Stable Phase Change Material Supported by 3D Bionic Porous Copper

Abstract

In response to the characteristics of low heat transfer and unstable morphology of organic phase change materials (PCMs), such as paraffin, a novel anisotropic biomimetic-structured three-dimensional porous Cu skeleton with wood texture and cell wall structure was prepared by the wood template method and was used as a support skeleton for PCMs. The bionic porous Cu maintains the porous channel structure of wood very well. Thanks to the existence of these woody cell walls and interstices, the composite PCMs show highly improved anisotropic thermal conductivity and good antileakage characteristics. The results indicate that the thermal conductivity of the composites in the vertical direction (6.7 W m–1 K–1) and the horizontal direction (2.3 W m–1 K–1) can reach up to 26.8 and 9.2 times that of paraffin wax (0.25 W m–1 K–1), respectively. The novel strategy provided by this work for designing anisotropic thermal conductive structures of composite PCMs presents a promising application in thermal energy storage and thermal management.