Boron nitride microsheets bridged with reduced graphene oxide as scaffolds for multifunctional shape stabilized phase change materials

Phase change materials (PCMs) store or release thermal energy during phase-changing processes, but their practical applications are limited by inherent deficiencies such as leakage over melting point, low thermal conductivity, and single driving way. We propose a novel strategy to prepare a shape-stabilized PCM with enhanced thermal conductivity and efficient electric-thermal/light-thermal energy conversion by encapsulating polyethylene glycol (PEG) in composite scaffolds of boron nitride (BN) and graphene oxide in situ reduced by microwave irradiation (rGO). The resulting composite PCM exhibited high thermal conductivity (1.06 W m(-1) K-1 at 14.4 wt% of BN an enhancement of 240% compared with pure PEG), high energy storage density, excellent shape stability and reusability. Furthermore, rGO also endows the PCM with high electric-thermal conversion efficiency (up to 87.9%) and light-thermal conversion efficiency (up to 87.4%), granting it great potential in thermal storage and management fields.