The behaviour of acetamide under ‘Galisol’ heat storage conditions

Abstract

Acetamide, as a phase-change material for energy storage, is preferable to other organic materials because of its noncorrosive behaviour and the high storage capacity (264 MJ/m3). In the paper a possibility is offered for a considerable decrease of the supercooling tendency and for the prevention of the disturbing sublimation effects, by modifying the dynamic working function principle ‘Galisol’. For this purpose we have used a heat-transfer liquid with a partial solubility for acetamide. The study reviews solubility data, investigations of the thermal behaviour by the DTA method with large samples, cloud point investigations, equilibrium surface tensions and heat-storage investigations of combinations of acetamide and heat-transfer liquids. A phase diagram of the acetamide-trichloroethylene system is presented. The heat-storage behaviour of acetamide in its combination with trichloroethylene and a surface active material is very promising and offers a high heat-transfer power comparable to that of inorganic salt hydrates under ‘Galisol’ conditions. Nevertheless, the fact that water-free acetamide, which is very expensive, has to be used must be taken into consideration.