Low-temperature preparation of solid-solid phase change polymer for thermal management modules

Abstract

The high initiating temperature of polymerization up to 80–100 °C during the preparation of solid–solid phase change polymer (SSPCP) leads to the limitation of the embedding procedure during the construction of the battery modules. Herein, we develop a low-temperature preparation strategy for SSPCPs by introducing a redox initiation system to reduce the decomposition activation energy, thus realizing the procedure for embedding the SSPCP into a battery module. In addition to the intrinsic ~100% anti-leakage performance and ultrahigh heat tolerance up to 250 °C, the SSPCP/expanded graphite composite demonstrates a suitable phase change temperature of 47.8 °C, high thermal conductivity of 2.33 W m−1 K−1, and latent heat of 99.6 J g−1 for battery thermal management, thus delivering a lower maximum temperature (47.4 °C vs. 45.2 °C) for the battery module than traditional composite phase change material during 15 charge–discharge cycles. No leakage traces are detected in the SSPCP module.