Pressure-Induced Assembly of Organic Phase-Change Materials Hybridized with Expanded Graphite and Carbon Nanotubes for Direct Solar Thermal Harvesting and Thermoelectric Conversion
Direct harvesting of abundant solar thermal energy within organic phase-change materials (PCMs) has emerged as a promising way to overcome the intermittency of renewable solar energy and pursue high-efficiency heating-related applications. Organic PCMs, however, generally suffer from several common...
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2024-12-01
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| author | Jie Ji Yizhe Liu Xiaoxiang Li Yangzhe Xu Ting Hu Zhengzheng Li Peng Tao Tao Deng |
| author_facet | Jie Ji Yizhe Liu Xiaoxiang Li Yangzhe Xu Ting Hu Zhengzheng Li Peng Tao Tao Deng |
| author_sort | Jie Ji |
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| description | Direct harvesting of abundant solar thermal energy within organic phase-change materials (PCMs) has emerged as a promising way to overcome the intermittency of renewable solar energy and pursue high-efficiency heating-related applications. Organic PCMs, however, generally suffer from several common shortcomings including melting-induced leakage, poor solar absorption, and low thermal conductivity. Compounding organic PCMs with single-component carbon materials faces the difficulty in achieving optimized comprehensive performance enhancement. Herein, this work reports the employment of hybrid expanded graphite (EG) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to simultaneously realize leakage-proofness, high solar absorptance, high thermal conductivity, and large latent heat storage capacity. The PCM composites were prepared by directly mixing commercial high-temperature paraffin (HPA) powders, EG, and CNTs, followed by subsequent mechanical compression molding. The HPA-EG composites loaded with 20 wt% of EG could effectively suppress melting-induced leakage. After further compounding with 1 wt% of CNTs, the form-stable HPA-EG20-CNT1 composites achieved an axial and in-plane thermal conductivity of 4.15 W/m K and 18.22 W/m K, and a melting enthalpy of 165.4 J/g, respectively. Through increasing the loading of CNTs to 10 wt% in the top thin layer, we further prepared double-layer HPA-EG-CNT composites, which have a high surface solar absorptance of 92.9% for the direct conversion of concentrated solar illumination into storable latent heat. The charged composites could be combined with a thermoelectric generator to release the stored latent heat and generate electricity, which could power up small electric devices such as light-emitting diodes. This work demonstrates the potential for employing hybrid fillers to optimize the thermophysical properties and solar thermal harvesting performances of organic PCMs. |
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| institution | Kabale University |
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| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
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| series | Nanomaterials |
| spelling | doaj-art-b0edf46ce50c43f6b31e34bfeb4e14e22024-12-27T14:43:35ZengMDPI AGNanomaterials2079-49912024-12-011424204710.3390/nano14242047Pressure-Induced Assembly of Organic Phase-Change Materials Hybridized with Expanded Graphite and Carbon Nanotubes for Direct Solar Thermal Harvesting and Thermoelectric ConversionJie Ji0Yizhe Liu1Xiaoxiang Li2Yangzhe Xu3Ting Hu4Zhengzheng Li5Peng Tao6Tao Deng7State Key Laboratory of Metal Matrix Composites, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dong Chuan Road, Shanghai 200240, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Metal Matrix Composites, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dong Chuan Road, Shanghai 200240, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Metal Matrix Composites, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dong Chuan Road, Shanghai 200240, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Metal Matrix Composites, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dong Chuan Road, Shanghai 200240, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Metal Matrix Composites, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dong Chuan Road, Shanghai 200240, ChinaCarbon Materials Research Institute, Baowu Carbon Technology Co., Ltd., 1800 Tongji Road, Baoshan District, Shanghai 201999, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Metal Matrix Composites, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dong Chuan Road, Shanghai 200240, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Metal Matrix Composites, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dong Chuan Road, Shanghai 200240, ChinaDirect harvesting of abundant solar thermal energy within organic phase-change materials (PCMs) has emerged as a promising way to overcome the intermittency of renewable solar energy and pursue high-efficiency heating-related applications. Organic PCMs, however, generally suffer from several common shortcomings including melting-induced leakage, poor solar absorption, and low thermal conductivity. Compounding organic PCMs with single-component carbon materials faces the difficulty in achieving optimized comprehensive performance enhancement. Herein, this work reports the employment of hybrid expanded graphite (EG) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to simultaneously realize leakage-proofness, high solar absorptance, high thermal conductivity, and large latent heat storage capacity. The PCM composites were prepared by directly mixing commercial high-temperature paraffin (HPA) powders, EG, and CNTs, followed by subsequent mechanical compression molding. The HPA-EG composites loaded with 20 wt% of EG could effectively suppress melting-induced leakage. After further compounding with 1 wt% of CNTs, the form-stable HPA-EG20-CNT1 composites achieved an axial and in-plane thermal conductivity of 4.15 W/m K and 18.22 W/m K, and a melting enthalpy of 165.4 J/g, respectively. Through increasing the loading of CNTs to 10 wt% in the top thin layer, we further prepared double-layer HPA-EG-CNT composites, which have a high surface solar absorptance of 92.9% for the direct conversion of concentrated solar illumination into storable latent heat. The charged composites could be combined with a thermoelectric generator to release the stored latent heat and generate electricity, which could power up small electric devices such as light-emitting diodes. This work demonstrates the potential for employing hybrid fillers to optimize the thermophysical properties and solar thermal harvesting performances of organic PCMs.https://www.mdpi.com/2079-4991/14/24/2047phase-change materialexpanded graphitecarbon nanotubecompression moldingthermal conductivity |
| spellingShingle | Jie Ji Yizhe Liu Xiaoxiang Li Yangzhe Xu Ting Hu Zhengzheng Li Peng Tao Tao Deng Pressure-Induced Assembly of Organic Phase-Change Materials Hybridized with Expanded Graphite and Carbon Nanotubes for Direct Solar Thermal Harvesting and Thermoelectric Conversion Nanomaterials phase-change material expanded graphite carbon nanotube compression molding thermal conductivity |
| title | Pressure-Induced Assembly of Organic Phase-Change Materials Hybridized with Expanded Graphite and Carbon Nanotubes for Direct Solar Thermal Harvesting and Thermoelectric Conversion |
| title_full | Pressure-Induced Assembly of Organic Phase-Change Materials Hybridized with Expanded Graphite and Carbon Nanotubes for Direct Solar Thermal Harvesting and Thermoelectric Conversion |
| title_fullStr | Pressure-Induced Assembly of Organic Phase-Change Materials Hybridized with Expanded Graphite and Carbon Nanotubes for Direct Solar Thermal Harvesting and Thermoelectric Conversion |
| title_full_unstemmed | Pressure-Induced Assembly of Organic Phase-Change Materials Hybridized with Expanded Graphite and Carbon Nanotubes for Direct Solar Thermal Harvesting and Thermoelectric Conversion |
| title_short | Pressure-Induced Assembly of Organic Phase-Change Materials Hybridized with Expanded Graphite and Carbon Nanotubes for Direct Solar Thermal Harvesting and Thermoelectric Conversion |
| title_sort | pressure induced assembly of organic phase change materials hybridized with expanded graphite and carbon nanotubes for direct solar thermal harvesting and thermoelectric conversion |
| topic | phase-change material expanded graphite carbon nanotube compression molding thermal conductivity |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2079-4991/14/24/2047 |
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