Preparation and thermal performance enhancement of roasted iron tailings based shape-stabilized phase change materials for thermal storage

Abstract

A new type of shape-stabilized phase change material (SSPCM) was fabricated for thermal energy storage (TES) using a facile synthetic strategy. Lauric acid (LA) was synchronously incorporated into the structural framework of roasted iron tailings (RIT) and graphene nanoparticles (GNP), in which RIT and GNP served as an ideal compatible supporting matrix, meanwhile, GNP was employed as a superior thermal conductivity additive, and LA acted as the working medium. The leakage results of the prepared composites were qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed. The surface morphology, chemical structure, thermal properties, heat transfer efficiency, thermal reliability, and thermal stability of the prepared SSPCMs were examined systematically. The prepared LA/RIT/GNP (5%) SSPCM exhibited relatively excellent thermal performance, which can meet the requirement of the future applications. Particularly, compared to pure LA, the measured thermal conductivity of LA/RIT/GNP (5%) with the addition of GNP was 9.03 times higher. The heat transfer efficiency of SSPCM was augmented by 91.67%. The mechanism of the improvement in thermal performance was revealed by the analysis of the microstructure characteristic parameters. In conclusion, the prepared SSPCM not only has great value in the low-temperature field of TES but also provides a new approach for high-value use of solid waste tailings, which expands the conventional utilization of iron tailings with a high-value approach.