Preparation and thermal properties of palmitic acid @ZnO/Expanded graphite composite phase change material for heat storage

A novel palmitic acid @ZnO/Expanded graphite composite phase change material (PCM) was prepared. Palmitic acid (PA) was selected as phase change material and ZnO/Expanded Graphite as supporting material. Expanded graphite (EG), which was used to improve the thermal conductivity of PCM, was chemically modified using ZnO derived from ZIF-8. ZnO derived from ZIF-8 has abundant pore structure and large specific surface area. The structure of ZnO/EG additive was characterized by SEM analyzing method. The prepared ZnO/EG has a three-dimensional coupled network and hierarchical porous structure. Meanwhile, EG can effectively prevent the structural collapse and aggregation of MetalOrganic Framework (MOF) derivatives. The morphology and thermal properties of composite PCMs were analyzed with SEM, XRD, FTIR, DSC, TG, and DTG. The melting/solidifying temperatures and corresponding latent heats of composite PCM PA@ZnO/EG-6% are 60.38 degrees C and 58.46 degrees C, and 203.35 kJ/kg and 207.87 kJ/kg. Thermal conductivity of the composite PCM PA@ZnO/EG-6% increases by 137.5% than that of PA. The DTG results indicated the composite PCM has superior thermal stability. All test results suggested that this composite is a good PCM and has excellent potential in heat storage due to its excellent thermal properties, good thermal stability, and reliability. (C) 2021 Published by Elsevier Ltd.