LA-PA eutectic/ nano- SiO2 composite phase change material for thermal energy storage application in buildings

Abstract

In this paper, a novel composite phase change material (PCM) was developed using the nano-silica (SiO2) in combination with the lauric acid (LA) and palmitic acid (PA) eutectic mixture for enhancing the thermal energy storing property in buildings. The structural features, morphology and the purity of the LA-PA eutectic and its composite were analyzed through the field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR) studies. Thermal energy storage property of the composite PCM was assessed from the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis and thermo-gravimetric (TGA) studies. DSC results confirmed that the melting range of eutectic was 36 °C with a high latent heat of 187 J/g which is more optimistic for the energy storage applications. Moreover, the thermal conductivity value of the composite PCM with 5% nano-silica was enhanced by 54.4% when compared to the LA-PA eutectic. Hence, the use of nano-silica loaded composite PCM in building materials could store considerable amount of heat energy and maintain the thermal comfort to a maximum extent.