Energy Storage Science and Technology ›› 2017, Vol. 6 ›› Issue (2): 213-222.doi: 10.12028/j.issn.2095-4239.2016.0080

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The use of carbon materials for enhancing heat transfer of organic based composite phase change materials : A review

ZHU Jiaoqun, SONG Yi, ZHOU Weibing, LIU Fengli   

  1. State Key Laboratory of Silicate Materials for Architectures, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, Hubei, China
  • Received:2016-10-13 Revised:2016-12-23 Online:2017-03-01 Published:2017-03-01

Abstract: Low thermal conductivity is one of the primary disadvantages of organic based phase change materials, which is the main reason behind the slow charging/discharging kinetics and restricts the practical applications of this type of materials. Recent research has shown an increased interest in the use of carbon materials, which not only have a high thermal conductivity, but also can be used as an adsorption carrier or a filler of organic PCMs. In this paper, we shall review the characteristics of carbon materials particularly microporous carbon, carbon fibers and carbon nanomaterials, and the use of these materials for the enhancement of thermal conductivity of organic based PCMs. We shall show that microporous carbon materials not only can enhance the thermal conductivity of organic PCMs, but also act as an encapsulation matrix for organic PCMs. Carbon nanomaterials appear to have great advantages in terms of thermal conductivity enhancement and nano-enhanced phase change processes, but this aspect is still in the early stage and requires extensive future research.

Key words: organic phase change materials, carbon materials, thermal conductivity, nano-enhanced phase change materials