Enhanced Specific Heat of Sodium Acetate Trihydrate by In-Situ Nanostructure Synthesis

Recent studies have shown that doping nanoparticles (NPs) into a molten salt eutectic can induce salt molecules to form a stelliform nanostructure that can enhance the effective heat capacity of the mixture. This phenomenon can result from a unique characteristic of a eutectic molten salt system, which can self-form a nanostructure on a nanoscale solid surface. Hence, such an enhancement was only observed in a molten salt eutectic. Similarly, a stelliform nanostructure can be artificially synthesized and dispersed in other liquids. Mixing polar-ended molecules with a NP in a medium can induce the polar-ended molecules ionically bonded to a NP to form a stelliform nanostructure. Hence, this may enhance the effective heat capacity of the mixture. In this study, we disperse various NPs and polar-ended materials into a sodium acetate trihydrate (SAT) at different ratios to explore the effect of NP type and concentration as well as polar-ended materials and their concentrations on the resultant heat capacity of SAT. The result shows that the specific heat capacity was the highest with silica NP at 1% concentration of weight and polar-ended material at 4% concentration.