Thermal conductivity enhancement of phase change materials with 3D porous diamond foam for thermal energy storage

For thermal energy storage applications using phase change materials (PCMs), the power capacity is often limited by the low thermal conductivity (lambda(PCM)). Here, a three-dimensional (3D) diamond foam (DF) is proposed by template-directed chemical vapor deposition (CVD) on Cr-modified Cu foam as highly conductive filler for paraffin-based PCM. Results showed the foam substrate was completely covered by continuous diamond films with high quality. And it showed a faster thermal response than that of Cu foam (CF) and Cu disc, while only a little slower than that of free-standing diamond disc with the same thickness. The incorporation of interconnected diamond foam with the diamond volume fraction of only 1.3% in the composite phase change material represented a great thermal conductivity enhancement over the pure paraffin, CF/paraffin and diamond particles reinforced paraffin by a factor of 25.8, 1.62 and 13.88, respectively. The great enhancement of the thermal conductive property was mainly attributed to interconnected diamond networks with high thermal conductivity, which effectively reduced the phonon-phonon and phonon-boundary scatterings. Besides, the DF/paraffin composite PCM exhibited an improved shape stability and a fast heat charging rate with the latent heat of 124.7 J/g. The marriage of the excellent properties of diamond and the inherent advantages of the 3D interconnected structure makes the diamond foams potential components or act as reinforcements in the field of high-efficiency heat dissipation and thermal energy storage.