A preliminary study for the effect of DC voltage on the supercooling degree of PCM CaCl2?6H2O

This paper reports the results of an experimental study for electrofreezing of a salt hydrate-based phase change material CaCl2?6H2O to reduce the supercooling effect. The experiment was performed by using DC voltage and 0.3 mm diameter of the copper electrode. The time-dependent temperature was measured using a thermocouple data logger, which is connected to a computer. The parameter variation consists of the interval time for field application and magnitude of the applied electric field. The supercooling degree changed with the interval time for the applied field, although its variation still needs to be further clarified. Besides that, there is a minimum value of the applied field to affect the freezing, and the supercooling degree tends to decrease with the increase of the applied field. Repetitive experiment was performed to study the variation of supercooling temperature, freezing temperature, and supercooling degree. It was found that the DC voltage gives a favorable condition for the nucleation process by reducing its stochastic character, and it might be related to the emergence of a complex coordination compound. ? 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 7th International Conference of Advanced Materials Science and Technology 2019.

Automated summary

This paper reports the results of an experimental study on the electrofreezing of a salt hydrate-based phase change material CaCl2?6H2O to reduce supercooling. It found that the time interval and magnitude of the applied electric field affect the supercooling degree, and suggested that DC voltage may favor the nucleation process during freezing.