Porous carbon network-based composite phase change materials with heat storage capacity and thermal management functions

Abstract

Porous carbon network-based phase change composites have been widely used in energy storage and thermal management related fields. At present, the demand of energy crisis for photothermal energy storage and the prevention and management of thermal abuse of electronic equipment constantly promote the development of carbon-based composite phase change materials (PCMs). Therefore, a series of new composite materials filled with PCMs and polyethylene glycol (PEG) and added with flame-retardant magnesium hydroxide were developed, which makes the composites show certain flame-retardant ability in high-temperature environments. The results show that the thermal conductivity increases from 0.25 to 0.94 W/m·K, and the latent heat of phase change remains at 142.7 J/g. In addition, due to the capillary effect caused by the synergistic effect of multi-pore carbon (MPC) structure and cellulose macromolecular chain, the composite material has good shape stability, which effectively prevents the leakage behavior of PCMs during solid-liquid phase change. Moreover, the absorbance of the composite material can reach 1.28 L/(g cm) in the ultraviolet–visible light range of 200 nm–800 nm, and its photothermal conversion efficiency can reach 90.8 %. Therefore, this material has a broad application prospect in the thermal management of electronic equipment and photothermal energy storage devices.