Preparation and thermal properties of lauric acid/raw fly ash/carbon nanotubes composite as phase change material for thermal energy storage

Abstract

In this study, a novel ternary system form-stable phase change material (FSPCM) composed of lauric acid (LA)/raw fly ash (RFA)/carbon nanotubes (CNT) was prepared via low cost, easy and industrially applicable fabrication process for low-temperature heat storage. Particularly, the unmodified RFA was directly acted as supporting material to prevent the leakage of the melted LA almost at no cost. A series of leakage experiments were performed to evaluate the package efficiency. The maximum mass fraction of LA absorbed in RFA and CNT was found to be 25 wt% without the LA leakage. Hence, the LA/RFA/CNT (25/75/5 wt%) composite was characterized as FSPCM. The chemical structures, microstructure thermal properties and thermal stability of the FSPCM was investigated by Fourier transformation infrared spectroscope (FTIR), scanning electronic microscope (SEM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermal gravimetric analyzer (TGA). The SEM and FTIR results indicated that LA was adsorbed on the RFA’s surface porous or into the porous structure of CNT. And there was good chemical compatibility among LA, RFA and CNT. The DSC results demonstrated that the phase change temperatures and latent heats of LA/RFA/CNT FSPCM were 45.36 °C and 37.83 J/g for melting and 40.51 °C and 36.48 J/g for freezing, respectively. TGA analysis test revealed that the composite PCM had excellent thermal stability. Moreover, the heat transfer efficiency of LA/RFA/CNT FSPCM has been improved by the addition of RFA and CNT. In short, the LA/RFA/CNT FSPCM has a promising application prospect in low-temperature application due to feasible and in large scale industrial preparation, low-cost, simple and facile process.