Abstract
The development of thermal energy storage materials is the most attractive strategy to harvest the solar energy and increase the energy utilization efficiency. Phase change materials (PCMs) have received much attention in this research field for several decades. Herein, we reported a new kind of PCM micro topological structure, design direction, and the ultra-flexible, form-stable and smart PCMs, polyrotaxane. The structure of polyrotaxane was fully confirmed by 1H nuclear magnetic resonance, attenuated total reflection-fourier transform infrared and X-ray diffraction. Then the tensile properties, thermal stability in the air, phase change energy storage and shape memory properties of the films were systematically analyzed. The results showed that all the mechanical performance, thermal stability in air and shape memory properties of polyrotaxanes were enhanced significantly compared to those of polyethylene oxide (PEO). The form stability at temperatures above the melting point of PEO significantly increased with the α-CD addition. Further with the high phase transition enthalpy and excellent cycle performance, the polyrotaxane films are therefore promising sustainable and advanced form-stable phase change materials for thermal energy storage. Notably, its ultra-high flexibility, remolding ability and excellent shape memory properties provide a convenient way for the intelligent heat treatment packaging of complex and flexible electronic devices. In addition, this is a totally novel insight for polyrotaxane application and new design method for form-stable PCMs.
Highlights
The deterioration of fossil energy and the increase in environmental pollution have made the exploitation of clean, sustainable, and renewable energy resources increasingly desirable and challenging. [1] The development of thermal energy storage materials is the most attractive strategy to harvest the solar energy and increase the energy utilization efficiency
The results showed that all the mechanical performance, thermal stability in air and shape memory properties of polyrotaxanes were enhanced significantly compared to those of polyethylene oxide (PEO)
The commonly occurring issues of organic Phase change materials (PCMs) are their poor flexibility, complex manufacturing process, low thermal conductivity, and leakage during the solid-liquid phase-change process. [4, 5] As a credible alternative to solve this problem, some porous matrixes have usually been incorporated with organic PCMs to improve their thermal conductivity as well as form stability
Summary
The deterioration of fossil energy and the increase in environmental pollution have made the exploitation of clean, sustainable, and renewable energy resources increasingly desirable and challenging. [1] The development of thermal energy storage materials is the most attractive strategy to harvest the solar energy and increase the energy utilization efficiency. Polyethylene glycol (PEG)-based composite PCMs are widely employed as energy storage materials in the fields of solar energy utilization and waste heat recovery, due to their excellent thermal properties, large phase transformation enthalpy combined with suitable phase change temperature, non-toxicity, low cost, and biodegradability. [22, 23] To solve the current problems of the conventional PCMs and fulfil the high-performance requirements for flexible devices, in this work, we will prepare high molecular PLRs with different α-CD contents by one facile method. The optical, mechanical properties (flexibility), thermal properties, form stability, and the heat response of the PLRs will be investigated as a function of the α-CD contents for application as high-performance form-stable PCMs
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