Diesters of high-chain dicarboxylic acids with 1-tetradecanol as novel organic phase change materials for thermal energy storage

A series of diesters of high-chain dicarboxylic acids with 1-tetradecanol (myristyl alcohol) was synthesized by using decanedioic, dodecanedioic and tetradecanedioic acids under vacuum and in the absence of catalyst for the first time. These diesters were particularly investigated in terms of their thermo-physical properties to be further used as phase change materials (PCMs) in thermal energy storage. High purity syntheses were controlled via FT-IR, GC-MS and elemental analyses and thermo-physical properties were determined with differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and thermo-gravimetric analyzer (TGA). Thermal properties of the diesters were expressed in terms of phase change temperature, enthalpy, specific heat (C-p), thermal decomposition and reliability after 1000 thermal cycles with necessary statistical data. In addition to that, the GC-MS data were also presented to specify the mass fragmentation fingerprints of the diesters. The yield of diester formation was found to be in the range of 95-97%. The DSC analyses indicated that the melting temperatures of the high-chain diesters with myristyl alcohol were between 50 degrees C and 58 degrees C with phase change enthalpy above 200 kJ/kg. The results showed that these materials were favorable for low temperature heat transfer applications with successful thermal properties and reliability. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.