Preparation and Thermal Performance Analysis of New Composite Phase Change Materials of Sodium Acetate Trihydrate and Different Additives.
Kai Luo, Weiliang Ye, Zui Zeng, Dengke Wu, Jingtao Liu
Abstract
Abstract A thickener that could address the phase separation problems of sodium acetate trihydrate (SAT) was determined by the gravity sedimentation method. Additionally, a hydrated salt nucleating agent to effectively reduce the supercooling of SAT was sought using the step‐cooling method. Combining these findings, a new SAT composite phase change material (SAT CPCM) was prepared. Additionally, a sample containing expanded graphite (EG) was prepared by melt blending to enhance the thermal conductivity. Our results show that a sample prepared with 1.5 % xanthan gum and 2 % sodium pyrophosphate decahydrate as a hydrated salt nucleating agent basically eliminates supercooling, its thermostability better than that of the composite phase change material using disodium hydrogen phosphate dodecahydrate. A sample with 6 % EG stays molten without leakage at a higher temperature and in the cooling test, the material‘s supercooling degree was only 1.1 °C. After 200 cooling‐heating cycles, the thermal stability was good, with high latent heats of 230.52 kJ/kg and thermal conductivities of 1.789 W(m ⋅ K) −1 . This composite phase change material has great application potential in the field of low‐temperature heat storage.