Performance improvement of phase change materials encapsulated with graphene oxide for thermal storage

The thermal enhanced phase change microcapsules were prepared by paraffin as core material and the modified graphene as wall material. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscope (FTIR) were applied to determine the microstructure and chemical structure of the microcapsules. A differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) test was done to investigate the thermal properties and thermal stability of the microcapsules. The results showed that the modified graphene/paraffin microcapsules have a regular spherical shape. The thermal conductivity of the microcapsules increases gradually with the increase of the content of the modified graphene. When the content of graphene content is 10 %, the thermal conductivity of the microcapsules is 4.01 times that of paraffin. The enthalpy of phase transition of the microcapsules is 100.3 J/g. Considering the suitable thermal properties, good thermal reliability, chemical stability and great thermal conductivity of the prepared microcapsules, it shows good application prospects in thermal or solar energy storage applications.