Processing of phase change materials by fused deposition modeling: Toward efficient thermal energy storage designs

Advanced Materials and Additive Manufacturing for Phase Change Thermal Energy Storage and Management: A Review

“…All filaments that encapsulate PCMs have been polymers like high density polyethylene (HDPE), [ 93,94 ] polycaprolactone (PCL), [ 112 ] thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU), [ 111,113 ] acrylonitrile‐butadiene‐styrene (ABS), [ 155,163,164 ] and nylon. [ 97 ]…”

“…In two examples, MEPCMs were mixed with polymer powders and extruded directly into filament achieving MEPCM contents between 30 and 50 wt.% and exhibited melt enthalpies in the range of 46–70 J g −1 for the printed parts. [ 97,111 ] Using solution processes, PCL was dissolved in chloroform and 60 wt.% MEPCM was dispersed in the solution prior to drying and breaking up into pellets that had a melt enthalpy around 40 J g −1 . [ 112 ]…”

“…[ 97 ] Mechanical damage to MEPCMs can occur during filament compounding leading to shell breakage, but this can be mitigated by using polymer powders over pellets. [ 97 ] DIW processes are also a good option for MEPCMs, where the solid particles can be dispersed in a flowable matrix that can be deposited into a layer prior to curing. With ink‐based materials, there is reduced likelihood of mechanical damage from dispersal and ample opportunity to adjust viscosity.…”

“…filament with PCM directly incorporated into the structural wall material, which enables integration of the PCM storage and heat exchanger into one unified part, further reducing internal thermal resistances. [93][94][95][96][97][98] This is discussed in depth later in this article in Section 2.2.…”

“…[116,132,137,146,147] Commercialized PCMs are routinely utilized given the variety of transition temperatures and are available both in neat [87,93,94,112,[148][149][150][151][152][153][154][155][156][157][158][159][160][161][162][163] and microencapsulated forms. [97,111,112] In an example of a metal PCM, researchers capitalized on the solid-state transition of a nickel titanium alloy from monoclinic Martensite configurations to a cubic Austenite lattice for AM metallic parts. [124] Another case of metal PCMs used a printed aluminum-tin alloy where tin was the PCM given its comparatively low melting temperature.…”