Surfactant role in nano-enhanced phase change materials

Abstract

Advance research in phase change materials (PCMs) has been explored as a novel thermal energy storage (TES) material. The nano-filler of high-conductive material is very promising in improving the material’s thermal properties. Because of the high surface energy of nano-filler, it coagulates quickly and is difficult to disperse in PCMs. Surfactant has been explored by researchers to prevent particle cluster agglomeration and to stabilise particle suspensions. The two-step method has been used widely in synthesising Nano enhanced PCMs (NePCMs) with surfactants. Homogeneous and uniform surfactant dispersion was added not more than 1:1 to the nano-filler. Surfactant shows promising improvement in stabilising the nano-filler in PCMs. Moreover, it improves the NePCMs’ thermal conductivity (TC). However, the latent heat value drops as the nano-filler and surfactant concentrations increase.