Investigation on Thermal Energy Storage Properties of Polyethylene Glycol with Hybrid Nanoparticles of Al2O3 and CuO for Solar Thermal Energy Storage

Abstract

The ability to store high latent heat energy makes polyethylene glycol (PEG) one of the most promising materials in the organic phase change material (PCM) family. Nevertheless, the poor heat conductivity limits its potential to a large extent in the real time applications. In this study, polyethylene glycol (PEG2000) was incorporated with nano aluminium oxide (Al2O3) and copper oxide (CuO) composites to develop a hybrid nanomaterials based PCM with higher thermal conductivity. To accomplish the objectives of the study, six (06) samples were prepared. It was ensured that the total mass of both the nano particles remains 3% of the total mass of the sample. For characterization of the samples, FTIR, TGA, DSC, XRD techniques were used to test the thermal and chemical stability of the materials. The results show that the prepared composite has higher thermal conductivity than pure PCM and they are also chemically and thermally stable. Also, the interaction between PCM and nanoparticles is purely physical. The DSC findings showed that the developed nano enhanced PCM possess significantly high latent heat. The developed composites have the potential of being used as thermal energy storage materials for electronic board and various solar based applications.