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Thermodynamic study on expanded graphite-based multifunctional composite phase change materials for personal thermal management and medical protection

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Abstract

The low thermal conductivity and liquid-phase leakage of phase change materials seriously hinder their large-scale applications. Porous materials have been identified as an effective way to address the leakage and provide a thermally conductive network. Therefore, we designed an expanded graphite-based multifunctional composite phase change thermal storage materials for personal thermal management and antimicrobial in medical protection. Expanded graphite (EG) was used as the matrix, silver nanowires (Ag NWs) as the functional enhancement materials, and n-octadecane (OD) as the thermal storage materials. OD and Ag NWs were adsorbed in the porous structure of EG by vacuum-assisted impregnation. Finally, EG/Ag NWs/OD were combined with non-woven fabrics (N) by one-step hot pressing method to obtain EG/Ag NWs/OD-N composite with excellent comprehensive performance. With the mass ratio of EG to Ag NWs of 13:7, EG/Ag NWs/OD-N exhibited a thermal conductivity of 2.0130 W m−1 K−1, which was improved by 1070.3% compared with pure OD. EG/Ag NWs/OD-N has a melting enthalpy of 137.85 J·g−1 and a crystallization enthalpy of 128.97 J·g−1. In addition, EG/Ag NWs/OD-N display great antibacterial properties, thermal cycling stability, shape stability, and cycling persistence and showed excellent temperature control in protective clothing applications, offering great potential for large-scale applications.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52271205, 51971068, U20A20237, 52371218, 51863005, 52101245, and 51871065), the Scientific Research and Technology Development Program of Guangxi (AA19182014, AD17195073, and AA17202030-1), Guangxi Key Research and Development Program (2021AB17045), Science Research and Technology Development project of Guilin (20210216-1 and 20210102-4), Guangxi Bagui Scholar Foundation, Guilin Lijiang Scholar Foundation, Guangxi Collaborative Innovation Centre of Structure and Property for New Energy and Materials, Guangxi Advanced Functional Materials Foundation and Application Talents Small Highlands, Chinesisch-Deutsche Kooperationsgruppe (GZ1528), and Guangxi Key Laboratory of Sustainable Utilization of Plant Functional Substances (FPRU2022-4). Special thanks to Dr. Yongpeng Xia for his support of this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Guangxi Key Laboratory of Information Materials, Guangxi Collaborative Innovation Centre of Structure and Property for New Energy and Materials, School of Material Science and Engineering, Guilin University of Electronic Technology, 1# Jinji Road, Guilin, 541004, People’s Republic of China

    Lingjun Song, Yukai Yang, Haopan Hu, Yitong Wang, Xinlei Jia, Lixian Sun, Fen Xu, Bin Li, Ting Yu & Huanzhi Zhang

  2. Hunan Prov Key Lab Mat Protect Elect Power and Tran, Sch Chem and Food Engn, Changsha Univ Sci and Technol, Changsha, 410000, People’s Republic of China

    Julan Zeng & Zhong Cao

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  1. Lingjun Song
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Contributions

LS contributed to original draft, data colleting, experiment design, investigation, and data analysis. YY helped in data analysis and revised the paper. HH helped in production of schematic diagram. YW and XJ helped in data colleting and collating. LS worked in project administration and funding acquisition. FX worked in supervision and project administration. HZ, BL, and TY revised the paper. JZ and ZC worked in supervision and conceptualization of manuscript.

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Correspondence to Lixian Sun or Fen Xu.

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Song, L., Yang, Y., Hu, H. et al. Thermodynamic study on expanded graphite-based multifunctional composite phase change materials for personal thermal management and medical protection. J Therm Anal Calorim 149, 595–607 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-023-12662-8

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