Abstract. PCMs show great promise as thermal energy storage (TES) medium; however, their low thermal conductivity presents a major bottleneck for their potential application. Enhancement of the thermal conductivity of a paraffin based PCM material using GNP in combination with CNF, CNTs and TRG was investigated in this work. SEM was used to qualitatively assess the dispersion & distribution of the hybrid-nanofillers. DSC was used to determine the melting temperature, thermal capacity and latent heat, whereas thermal conductivity was measured using Hot Disk TPS Thermal Conductivity Instrument (TPS2500S). An overall increase by 143%, 158% and 174% in thermal conductivity and 179%, 193% and 214% in thermal diffusivity was observed for 2 wt.% hybrid loading of TRG, CNT and CNF respectively (pure PCM as ref.). Furthermore, the contribution of the CNF and CNT hybridfillers was evaluated to increase the composite PCM thermal conductivity by 122% & 110%, and diffusivity by 117% & 105% respectively (10%-GNP as ref.).
IntroductionEfficient energy storage and transfer has been perhaps the most challenging hurdle in the energy industry at the moment. The need to conserve energy and improve its utilization is increasing day by day with the increase in energy demand and growing notion of sustainability. The focus more recently, especially in Qatar, has been on sustainable alternates (i.e. Solar) to meet the local energy demand [1]. Phase change material (PCM) based latent heat storage systems have emerged as a very effective technique for thermal management systems [2] and have gathered significant interest in applications like solar energy systems, thermal energy storage (TES), active and passive cooling of PVs and electronic devices, etc. [3][4][5]. Thermal energy can be stored via two basic techniques: Sensible Heat Storage and Latent Heat Storage. In the former technique, the temperature of the storage material varies with stored energy, whereas in the latter, the storage material stores energy via phase change (i.e. steam-water, ice-water, etc.) [6][7][8].The high latent heat of the PCMs and their relatively lower phase change temperature are the core properties which have interested researchers for the aforementioned applications [9] . Despite key desirable properties of PCMs (high energy-storage density and isothermal characteristics) [10], their low thermal conductivity [11,12] remains the major bottleneck for many applications. This paper investigates the effect of various carbon-based hybrid nano-fillers with different physical dimensions and features on the thermal conductivity and diffusivity of paraffin-based PCM nanocomposites.