Characterization and Thermal Conductivity of Modified Graphite/Fatty Acid Eutectic/PMMA Form-Stable Phase Change Material

• Published in: Journal of Wuhan University of Technology. Materials science edition Vol. 28; no. 3; pp. 586 - 591
• Main Authors: Meng, Duo, Wang, Lijiu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Heidelberg Wuhan University of Technology 01.06.2013; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Chemistry and Materials Science; Differential scanning calorimetry; Eutectic temperature; Fatty acids; Graphite; Heat transfer; Materials Science; Phase change materials; PMMA; Polymethyl methacrylates; Thermal conductivity; 共晶组织; 复合相变材料; 形状; 改性石墨; 热导率; 稳定; 脂肪酸; form-stable composite PCM; fatty acid eutectic; modified graphite; thermal conductivity; poly-methyl methacrylate
• ISSN: 1000-2413; 1993-0437
• DOI: 10.1007/s11595-013-0735-0

We prepared and characterized a form-stable composite phase change material （PCM） with higher thermal conductivity. Capric acid（CA）-myristic acid（MA） eutectic as core, poly-methyl methacrylate （PMMA） as supportive matrix and modified graphite （MG） powders serving as the thermal conductance improver were blended by bulk- polymerization method. The composite PCMs with different MG mass fraction （2%, 5%, 7%, 10% and 15%） were characterized by FT-IR, SEM, DSC technique and mechanical tests. Thermal conductivities of the composites were measured by transient hot-wire method. The results indicate that MG powders have been successfully inserted into the CA-MA/PMMA matrix without any chemical reaction with each other. The MG/CA-MA/PMMA composites maintain good thermal storage performance while the thermal conductivity has been enhanced significantly. The composite PCM added with 15 wt% MG powders increases approximately as 195.9% in thermal conductivity. Moreover, the thermal conductivity improvement of the composite PCMs is also verified by the melting-freezing experiment, which is profitable for the heat transfer efficiency in latent heat thermal energy storage system.