The authors have presented a literature review on computational and experimental studies on the thermal conductivity of nanostructure enhanced phase change materials (nePCMs). It was found that a wide range of nanostructures have been investigated, from carbon nanostructures and carbon nanotubes to metal and metal oxide nanoparticles. The carbon nanostructures and nanotubes were found to generally enhance the thermal conductivity of the PCMs by a greater amount than metal or ...
Consolidated water sorbents with varying densities were prepared by adding expanded graphite treated with sulphuric acid to activated carbon-lithium chloride composites for use as a lab-scale prototype for thermal energy storage. The sorption reactor prototype that was designed was unable to reach the 1 kWh heat storage target. Further research will be done with the goal of developing a 15 kWh reactor which would be capable of meeting the heating demand of ...
The goal of this work was to produce a new high performance PCM, using a combination of RT 100 (paraffinic hydrocarbons) with expanded graphite (EG). The resulting composite performed extremely well in quality testing. Thermal conductivity was measured using the TPS method, and was found to be much higher in the composite than it was in the basic RT 100 materials. Thermal conductivity did not decrease during melting cycles. The ability of ...
A new composite phase change material for cold thermal energy storage applications is described in this paper. The authors combined dodecane into hydrophobic fumed silica to create a form stable PCM. Physical characteristics were studied using scanning through electron micrographs and Fourier transformation infrared. A thermal analyzer was used to measure the thermal conductivity of the composite, which was a desired low value needed for this type of application. An ...
This paper focuses on the creation of a new composite phase change material, paraffin-silica (SiO2)/graphene oxide (GO) through a two step process for potential use as a heat transfer fluid in direct absorption solar collectors. The resulting composite is composed of spherical capsules, and has the GO embedded within the SiO2 shell. Thermal conductivity testing with the TPS instrument revealed that the composites had excellent thermal characteristics and stability. ...
