Nitrate materials play an important role in the development of latent thermal energy storage (LTES) systems. This paper examined the thermo-physical properties of sodium nitrate, potassium nitrate and their mixtures with expanded graphite (EG) additives for their applications in solar energy storage. The transient hot-wire method measured the apparent thermal conductivities of the nitrates and nitrates/EG mixtures. Results showed that nitrates/EG mixture PCMs with the highest concentrations of ...
Paraffin is an excellent phase change material (PCM) for latent heat storage, but it does not efficiently use stored energy because of its low thermal conductivity. In this study, nickel and copper foams were added to paraffin to enhance heat transfer. A Thermal Constants Analyzer measured the thermal conductivity of the paraffin composites using the transient plane source (TPS) method. The addition of copper foam enhanced the thermal conductivity of ...
In this article, researchers used the sol-gel method to create a thermally conductive phase change material (PCM), paraffin/silicon dioxide (SiO2)/expanded graphite (EG) composite. This PCM is composed of a supporting material, silica gel, and a thermally conductive material, expanded graphite. Thermal properties, such as conductivity and diffusivity were determined experimentally, and a differential scanning calorimeter was used to characterize the melting temperature and latent heat of the PCM. ...
