Thermal properties of lauric acid/1-tetradecanol binary system for energy storage

Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) is used to investigate the thermal properties of lauric acid (LA), 1-tetradecanol (TD) and their binary system. The experimental results show that the phase diagram of the LA-TD binary system presents a eutectic behavior for the solid-liquid equilibrium line, and the corresponding mass fraction of TD in eutectic point is 60%. The eutectic melting temperature (T-em) is 24.33 degrees C, and the latent heat of melting of eutectic mixture (Delta H-em) is 161.45 J g(-1). The eutectic melting temperature, the latent heat of phase change and the specific heat (C-p) of eutectic mixture have not obvious variations after 30 and 90 thermal cycles, which proves that the eutectic mixture has good thermal stability and has potential as phase change material (PCM) for energy storage. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.