Preparation and Thermal Properties of 1-Hexadecanol-Palmitic Acid Eutectic Mixture/Activated Carbon Composite Phase Change Material for Thermal Energy Storage

In this study, a new kind of 1-hexadecanol-palmitic acid (HD-PA) binary eutectic mixture and the composite phase change materials (PCMs) composed of HD-PA absorbed into activated carbon (AC) pores with different mass percentage of 50, 55, 60, and 65% were prepared by vacuum impregnation method. The chemical structural, thermal stability and thermal durability of HD-PA/AC composite phase change materials (CPCMs) with different mass fraction of HD-PA was characterized by Fourier transformation infrared (FT-IR) spectrometer, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA), respectively. The specific surface area of AC were determined to be 760 m(2) g(-1) and abundant mesopores and micropores with the sizes at 1.8 and 0.6 nm were observed according to the N-2 adsorption-desorption measurement. DSC results showed that the onset melting temperature and latent heat of novel HD-PA eutectic were 50.2 degrees C and 226.6 J g(-1), respectively. The addition of AC to the PCM of binary HD-PA eutectic can enhance its thermal stability, durability and thermal energy storage-release rate. The form-stable HD-PA/AC CPCM can be used as energy storage materials in many fields owing to its good thermal properties and chemical stability.