Form‐Stabilized Polyethylene Glycol/Palygorskite Composite Phase Change Material: Thermal Energy Storage Properties, Cycling Stability, and Thermal Durability

Abstract

In this work, polyethylene glycol (PEG) as a phase change material (PCM) was incorporated with palygorskite (Pal) clay to develop a novel form‐stable composite PCM (F‐SCPCM). The Pal/PEG(40 wt%) composite was defined as F‐SCPCM and characterized using SEM/EDS, FT‐IR, XRD, DSC, and TGA techniques. The DSC results revealed that the F‐SCPCM has a melting temperature of 32.5°C and latent heat capacity of 64.3 J/g for thermal energy storage (TES) applications. Thermal cycling test showed that the F‐SCPCM had good cycling thermal/chemical stability after 500 cycles. The TGA data proved that that both cycled and non‐cycled F‐SCPCMs had considerable high thermal durability. Consequently, the created F‐SCPCM could be considered as an additive material for production of green construction components with TES capability. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 60:909–916, 2020. © 2020 Society of Plastics Engineers