Preparation and thermal energy storage studies of CH3COONa·3H2O–KCl composites salt system with enhanced phase change performance

Abstract

The phase change performance of the CH3COONa·3H2O–KCl composites salt system with Al2O3 nanoparticles and carboxyl methyl cellulose (CMC) were investigated in this paper. The CH3COONa·3H2O–KCl composite salt system was prepared by adding KCl (at 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10wt.%) to CH3COONa·3H2O, respectively. Al2O3 nanoparticles were proposed as the nucleating agent and CMC was selected as a thickening agent for the CH3COONa·3H2O–8wt.%KCl composites salt system. The results show CH3COONa·3H2O–8wt.%KCl composites salt system with 1wt.% Al2O3 nanoparticles and 4wt.% CMC, in which almost no supercoiling phenomenon occurs. After 50 cycles of the melting–freezing cycle test, aluminum oxide is uniformly dispersed in SAT composites matrix, the latent heat remained constant at about 232.29J/g. The maximum deviations of latent heat of composites CH3COONa·3H2O–8wt.%KCl with 1wt.% Al2O3 nanoparticles and 4wt.% CMC before and after the fifty-run-recycling test are only 3.6%.