Preparation, performances and applications of multi-functional photoluminescence form-stable phase change materials

Abstract

Up to now, most of the reported phase change materials only show a single application in thermal energy storage and can not satisfy the increasing demand for multifunctional materials. In this study, we first designed and prepared a novel multi-functional photoluminescence form-stable phase change materials (FSPCMs) using photoluminescence side chain liquid crystalline polymers with different flexible spacers length as gelators, and using paraffin as phase change materials. The properties, and the effect of flexible spacer length on the properties of photoluminescence FSPCMs were studied in detail by “tube test” method, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), polarized optical microscopy (POM), rheometry test, ultraviolet spectroscopy (UV) and photoluminescence instruments (PL). Experiment results showed that the prepared photoluminescence FSPCMs showed high thermal energy storage density and solid fluorescence quantum yield. The phase transition enthalpy for our prepared photoluminescence FSPCMs can reach 193.1 J g−1 and the solid fluorescence quantum yield can achieve 16.54%. The prepared photoluminescence FSPCMs can also absorb UV light and can be used as UV shielding materials. The properties of photoluminescence FSPCMs varied with the spacer length of polymer gelators. With increasing spacer length, the thermal stability and mechanical property of prepared photoluminescence FSPCMs showed the trend of deterioration. However, the solid fluorescence quantum yield of them increased with the increasing spacer length of polymer gelators.