Abstract
This research aimed to evaluate the thermal properties of new formulations of phase change materials (PCMs)-epoxy composites, containing a thickening agent and a thermally conductive phase. The composite specimens produced consisted of composites fabricated using (a) inorganic PCMs (hydrated salts), epoxy resins and aluminum particulates or (b) organic PCM (paraffin), epoxy resins, and copper particles. Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) was used to analyze the thermal behavior of the samples, while hardness measurements were used to determine changes in mechanical properties at diverse PCM and conductive phase loading values. The results indicate that the epoxy matrix can act as a container for the PCM phase without hindering the heat-absorbing behavior of the PCMs employed. Organic PCMs presented reversible phase transformations over multiple cycles, an advantage that was lacking in their inorganic counterparts. The enthalpy of the organic PCM-epoxy specimens increased linearly with the PCM content in the matrix. The use of thickening agents prevented phase segregation issues and allowed the fabrication of specimens containing up to 40% PCM, a loading significantly higher than others reported. The conductive phase seemed to improve the heat transfer and the mechanical properties of the composites when present in low percentages (<10 wt %); however, given its mass, the enthalpy detected in the composites was reduced as their loading further increased. The conductive phase combination (PCM + epoxy resin + hardener + thickening agent) presents great potential as a heat-absorbing material at the temperatures employed.
Highlights
Consensus regarding the implementation of environmental policies and energy-saving practices are increasingly present at the regional, national or international level [1]
The analysis of the heat flow signal in the STA instrument was used to evaluate the effectiveness of mixing inorganic phase change materials (PCMs) with epoxy resin containing aluminum
Once the PCMs were included in the epoxy composites, the heat flow signal still showed peaks that corresponded in temperature to those encountered in the salts analysis
Summary
Consensus regarding the implementation of environmental policies and energy-saving practices are increasingly present at the regional, national or international level [1]. The main reasons for implementation are, on the one hand, to reduce the increasingly high cost of energy dependence on fossil fuels and, on the other hand, to reduce the polluting emissions of those fossil fuels, which are largely responsible for the greenhouse effect [1,2]. This problem has led to the development and optimization of other energy resources and new energy storage systems [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]. In the case of building materials, energy-saving practices can be attained by the use of thermal energy storage (TES) systems.
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