Enhanced thermal performance of phase change material stabilized with textile-structured carbon scaffolds

The development of thermal conductive and porous supporting scaffolds is believed to solve the problems of poor shape-stability and low thermal conductivity of solid-liquid transition-type phase change materials (PCMs), which are promisingly used for solar thermal energy storage and management. In this paper, textile-structured carbon scaffolds with flexible shape and high porosity are produced by the direct carbonization of cotton cloth. The carbon textile with versatilely changeable shape can be employed as good conductive and supporting scaffolds for PCMs, and paraffin PCM is evaluated. The composite PCMs exhibit good shape-stability and enhanced thermal transfer properties. The composites can present anisotropically improved thermal conductivity by aligning the carbon sheets in their main yarn direction. The thermal conductivity of the composite with a carbon weight ratio of 16.5 wt% is increased to 0.99 W K-1 m(-1) from the main yarn direction and 0.68 W K-1 m(-1) from the through sheet direction, which is greatly higher than the value of paraffin (0.25 W k(-1) m(-1)), and the composite show heat capacity of 170 J g(-1). With the facile production of flexible and shapeable carbon supporting scaffold, the high thermal storage capability, good shape-stability and high heat transfer property, the composite PCM has great potential applications in solar thermal energy storage.