Abstract:
Renewable energy sources are set to replace the environmentally hazardous fossil fuels. Supply of renewable energy sources are intermittent, thus requiring storage media to level out the available energy. Phase change materials (PCM) are one convenient way for storing thermal energy due to its high value of latent heat of fusion. One unwelcomed property though is its low thermal conductivity and an attempt to increase this thermophysical property is the focus of this work. Thermal conductivity of PCM was enhanced by suspending highly-conductive metallic nano-particles resulting in the formation of nanoparticle-enhanced PCM (NePCM). Eicosane (C20H42) was selected as the base PCM, while Silver (Ag) was chosen as the additives. Three batches of solid eicosane-silver samples with distinct mass fraction of nanoparticles were obtained under different solidification routes. Then, transient plane source technique (TPS) was used to measure thermal conductivity at different temperatures. Results showed an increase in the value of thermal conductivity as the temperature increased, and when close to melting point, a sharp rise in thermal conductivity was observed. In addition to that, the latent heat of fusion of the sample was investigated, utilizing differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Results showed a decrease in the latent heat and the melting point of the NePCM as the additives loading increased due to the decrease in the number of molecules of eicosane in the samples.
Keywords: Phase Change Materials, Thermal Conductivity Enhancement, Nano-Particles suspension
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