An Experimental Study on the Heat Storage Performances of Polyalcohols NPG, TAM, PE, and AMPD and their Mixtures as Solid-Solid Phase-Change Materials for Solar Energy Applications

Abstract

The heat storage performance of polyalcohols NPG (Neopentyl glycol), TAM (Tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane), PE (Pentaerythritol), and AMPD (Aminoglycol) and their mixtures as solid-solid phase-change materials for solar energy applications are experimentally investigated by the DSC (differential scanning calorimetry) technique. It is found that pure AMPD is not suitable for practical applications due to its wide ranges of charge and discharge temperatures and its high hygroscopic property. The specific sample preparation process has significant impact on the heat storage performance of the mixtures of polyalcohols. If the experimental samples are prepared with the proper processes, there will usually be only one peak presented in the DSC curves instead of two peaks, as reported by some studies. Due to the poor heat storage performance and high hygroscopic property of AMPD, the binary mixtures of AMPD/NPG and AMPD/TAM do not have practical application values. However, the binary mixtures of AMPD/PE with a high or low weight ratio of AMP still are found to have potential practical application values. The experimental results also show that a mixture of more than two polyalcohols do not have better performances than a binary mixture.