Preparation and thermal performance of n-octadecane/expanded graphite composite phase-change materials for thermal management

• DOI: 10.1007/s10973-017-6556-1
• Publication Date: 2017-07-06T07:40:08Z
• Authors: Yongpeng Xia; Weiwei Cui; Huanzhi Zhang; Yongjin Zou; Cuili Xiang; Hailiang Chu; Shujun Qiu; Fen Xu; Lixian Sun
• Keywords: 7. Clean energy; 01 natural sciences; 0104 chemical sciences

Series of n-octadecane/expanded graphite composite phase-change materials (PCMs) with different mass ratio were prepared using n-octadecane as PCMs, expanded graphite as multi-porous supporting matrix through vacuum impregnation method. Microstructure, crystallization properties, energy storage behavior, thermal cycling property and intelligent temperature-control performance of the composite PCMs were investigated. Results show that the composite PCMs have a good energy storage property. The melting enthalpy and crystallization enthalpy can reach 164.85 and 176.51 J g−1, respectively. Furthermore, the good thermal conductivity of expanded graphite reduces the super-cooling degree of n-octadecane and endows the composite PCMs with fast thermal response rate and excellent thermal cycling stability. As a result, the phase-change temperatures and phase-change enthalpy almost have no change after 50 thermal-cooling cycles. The test of intelligent temperature-control performance shows that the electronic radiator filled with the composite PCMs possesses a high intelligent temperature-control performance, and its temperature can sustain in the range of 22–27.5 °C for about 6120 s. These results indicate that the prepared composite PCMs possess good comprehensive property and can be widely used in energy storage and thermal management systems.