Phase change materials (PCMs) are substances that release large amounts of energy in the form of latent heat when they freeze. Paraffin waxes have many of the desired characteristics PCMs exhibit except that they have low thermal conductivity. In this experiment, Alumina and Carbon Black nanoparticles were added to two types of paraffin waxes (melting points of 20-25 °C) to increase their thermal conductivity. A Transient Plane Source (TPS) measured ...
The low thermal conductivity of paraffin hinders its ability to be used as a PCM, and so in this article the authors created a composite made up of paraffin and micron-size graphite flakes (MSGFs) in order to hopefully increase thermal conductivity and energy storage capabilities. The results showed that increasing concentrations of MSGFs corresponded to 'enormous' increases in thermal conductivity. The addition of MSGFs to paraffin did not affect its ...