Preparation and thermal properties of paraffin/porous silica ceramic composite

This work mainly involved the preparation and characterization of form-stable paraffin/porous silica ceramic composite. The paraffin acts as thermal absorb material and porous silica serves as the supporting material, which provides structural strength and prevents the leakage of melted paraffin. Results indicate that the composite remained solid above the melting temperature of paraffin while the mass fraction of paraffin reached to 75%. Moreover, scanning electronic microscope (SEM) observed the paraffin dispersed into porous network of silica ceramics. Fourier transformation infrared spectroscope (FTIR) indicated that the composite formation of porous silica and paraffin were physical. Differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) determined the melting temperature and heat storage capacity of the composite to be 56.3 degrees C and 165.16 kJ/kg, respectively. (c) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.