Sodium acetate trihydrate-based composite phase change material with enhanced thermal performance for energy storage

Abstract

Sodium acetate trihydrate (CH3COONa·3H2O, SAT), as the medium-low temperature phase change material (PCM), has been broadly utilized in thermal energy storage system. The specific objective of this study was to develop a new SAT-based composite PCM (CPCM) in order to restrain the supercooling and phase segregation of pure SAT. In this dissertation, SAT-CN/Nano-Cu was synthesized by adding carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), sodium chloride (NaCl) and Nano-copper (Nano-Cu). The experimental results manifest that CMC is resultful to constrain phase separation of pure SAT. Supercooling degree of pure SAT is reduced from 30°C to less than 5°C by the addition of varying NaCl content. The Nano-Cu was furnished to further prevent the supercooling phenomenon of CPCM as well as intensify the heat transfer characteristics of pure SAT. Thermal properties containing thermal conductivity, latent heat and specific heat capacity were systematically analyzed using DSC and thermal properties analyzer. The analysis results demonstrate that a satisfactory thermal conductivity, high latent heat and inclusive of an appropriate specific heat capacity are achieved by the SAT-CN/Nano-Cu. In short, this work reported optimum CPCM consisted of SAT, 3 wt% CMC, 4 wt% NaCl and 0.8 wt% Nano-Cu that possesses superior phase change performance. Additionally, admirable thermal stability is retained by the CPCM.