Thermal characteristics of room temperature inorganic phase change system containing calcium chloride

Abstract

A novel inorganic calcium-based phase change material(PCM-Ca) consisted of 47.1%(mass fraction) water, 47.7% calcium chloride, 2% potassium nitrate, 2% potassium bromide and 1.2% strontium chloride with a solid-liquid phase change temperature of 21.4 °C was investigated systematically. Among the components of PCM-Ca, calcium chloride and water act as the latent heat storage materials, and potassium nitrate, potassium bromide and strontium chloride work as the modifier, thickener and nucleating agent, respectively. Thermochemical properties including melting point, latent heat, density and thermal conductivity of the PCM-Ca were measured experimentally. The experimental results indicate that the melting latent heat, thermal conductivity at the melting point and density at room temperature for the PCM-Ca are 203.3 kJ/kg, 1.3637 W·m–1·K–1 and 1.55×103 kg/m3, respectively. Moreover, a thirty-run-cycling test showed that the PCM-Ca has a good thermal characteristic with no phase segregation or supercooling, and the maximum deviations of latent heat and phase change temperature are only 0.2% and 1.6%, respectively.