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Form-stable polyethylene glycol/activated carbon composite phase change materials for thermal energy storage

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Abstract

A series of form-stable polyethylene glycol/activated carbon (AC) composites were prepared via a vacuum-assisted infiltration method, where polyethylene glycol (PEG) was used as an organic phase change material (PCM) and AC was used as an inorganic supporting matrix to prevent the leakage of the PCM during phase change period. The chemical structural, thermal properties, thermal stability, and reliability of PEG/AC composite PCMs (CPCMs) with various mass loadings of PEG2000 was investigated by N2 adsorption analyzer, Fourier transformation infrared (FT–IR) spectrometer, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA), respectively. The form stability and thermal energy storage and release properties of PEG/AC CPCMs were also experimentally studied. The results showed that PEG/AC CPCM with 80 mass% PEG2000 loading displayed reasonable latent heat, suitable phase transition temperature, good thermal reliability, enhanced thermal conductivity, and thermal energy storage and release performances, as well as excellent form stability, which are suitable for the practical applications of PCMs for thermal energy storage.

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Abbreviations

AC:

Activated carbon

PEG:

Polyethylene glycol

PCM:

Phase change material

CPCMs:

Composite phase change materials

FS-CPCMs:

Form-stable composite phase change materials

FT-IR:

Fourier transformation infrared spectrometer

DSC:

Differential scanning calorimetry

TGA:

Thermogravimetric analyzer

BET:

Brunauer–Emmett–Teller

BJH:

Barrett–Joyner–Halenda

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant Nos: 2682021ZTPY022, 2682022KJ047, and 2682023GF026) and the Opening Project of Applied Mechanics and Structure Safety Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province (Grant No: SZZZKT-202207).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pharmaceutical Engineering, School of Pharmaceutical and Materials Engineering, Taizhou University, 1139 Shifu Road, Taizhou, 318000, Zhejiang, China

    Rui Zheng & Jianfen Shen

  2. Applied Mechanics and Structure Safety Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, School of Mechanics and Aerospace Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, 610031, Sichuan, China

    Zhengyu Cai, Chaoming Wang & Shuaiao Xie

  3. Institute of Urban Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Chengdu, 610000, Sichuan, China

    Zhiyong Qi

Authors
  1. Rui Zheng
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  2. Zhengyu Cai
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  3. Chaoming Wang
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  4. Jianfen Shen
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  5. Shuaiao Xie
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Contributions

RZ and ZYC have equal contribution to this work. RZ Investigation, Data curation, Methodology, Validation, Writing-original draft preparation. ZC Investigation, Data curation, Software, Validation. CW Conceptualization, Supervision, Writing-Review & Editing, Funding acquisition. JS Investigation, Visualization. SX Software, Visualization. ZQ Methodology, Writing-Review & Editing.

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Correspondence to Chaoming Wang or Zhiyong Qi.

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Zheng, R., Cai, Z., Wang, C. et al. Form-stable polyethylene glycol/activated carbon composite phase change materials for thermal energy storage. J Therm Anal Calorim 148, 9937–9946 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-023-12355-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-023-12355-2

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