Preparation and Thermal Properties of 1‐Hexadecanol‐Palmitic Acid Eutectic Mixture/Activated Carbon Composite Phase Change Material for Thermal Energy Storage

Abstract

Abstract In this study, a new kind of 1‐hexadecanol‐palmitic acid (HD‐PA) binary eutectic mixture and the composite phase change materials (PCMs) composed of HD‐PA absorbed into activated carbon (AC) pores with different mass percentage of 50, 55, 60, and 65% were prepared by vacuum impregnation method. The chemical structural, thermal stability and thermal durability of HD‐PA/AC composite phase change materials (CPCMs) with different mass fraction of HD‐PA was characterized by Fourier transformation infrared (FT‐IR) spectrometer, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA), respectively. The specific surface area of AC were determined to be 760 m 2 g −1 and abundant mesopores and micropores with the sizes at 1.8 and 0.6 nm were observed according to the N 2 adsorption‐desorption measurement. DSC results showed that the onset melting temperature and latent heat of novel HD‐PA eutectic were 50.2 °C and 226.6 J g −1 , respectively. The addition of AC to the PCM of binary HD‐PA eutectic can enhance its thermal stability, durability and thermal energy storage‐release rate. The form‐stable HD‐PA/AC CPCM can be used as energy storage materials in many fields owing to its good thermal properties and chemical stability.