Preparation of polyether based form-stable phase change hydrogel: towards high performance cold energy storage

Abstract

Cold energy storage technology using phase change materials (PCMs) plays an important role in cold chain logistics, air conditioning refrigeration, high temperature operation temperature control clothing and other fields. However, the performance of current phase change cold storage materials is still far from optimum. How to make its shape stable and machinability is still the key problem in its practical application. Herein, we report a novel form-stable hydrogel phase change cold storage materials (HPCCS) with water as PCM and a polyether-based 3D gel as skeleton. These hydrogels exhibited excellent shape-stability i.e. no water leakage, owing to the coaction of capillary forces and hydrogen bonding. HPCCS has similar phase change performance with ice, while HPCCS maintained cold temperature 1.85 times longer than ice. Finally, it was found that HPCCS could prolong the preservation time of Litchi which points towards its excellent potential for use in food cold chain logistics applications.