Investigation on innovative thermal conductive composite strontium chloride for ammonia sorption refrigeration

A novel composite strontium chloride (SrCl2) is developed with porous material of expanded natural graphite (ENG) and nanoparticle of carbon coated nickel (Ni@C) as the additives. Thermo-physical properties such as thermal diffusivity, thermal conductivity and permeability are investigated and analyzed. The highest thermal diffusivity could reach 6.2 mm(2).s(-1). Correspondingly the highest thermal conductivity is 4.03W . m(-1) . K-1, which is about 20 times higher than that of granular SrCl2. Permeability of novel composite SrCl2 ranges from 1.31 x 10(-9) m(2) to 1.07 x 10(-13) m(2). Moreover, samples with Ni@C have better sorption performance in ammonia than those without Ni@C due to the improved heat and mass transfer performance. Ammonia sorption quantities of novel composite SrCl2 range from 0.39 kg.kg(-1) to 0.67 kg.kg(-1) when evaporation temperature varies from -15 degrees C to 15 degrees C. The addition of ENG and Ni@C shows great potentials for sorption refrigeration by adjusting the concentration swing. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved.