Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP)-enabled significant suppression of supercooling of erythritol for medium-temperature thermal energy storage

The supercooling effect is deemed to be a crucial issue for thermal energy storage using phase change materials (PCMs). The exploration of promising additives plays a decisive role in effective suppression efforts for suppressing the supercooling effect of a PCM. The present work proposed a potential additive, polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), to reduce the supercooling of erythritol, which is the most promising polyol PCM candidate for medium temperature range. PVP with various loadings was dispersed in erythritol to make composites for the proof-of-concept tests. It was shown that the degree of supercooling of erythritol can be reduced significantly from over 64 ? to about 21 ? in the presence of only 1.0 wt.% PVP. Along with the mitigated supercooling effect, the addition of PVP also leads to an increase of the retrievable latent heat during crystallization, from ~187 J/g to ~224 J/g at the same minute PVP loading of 1.0 wt.%, by increasing the crystallinity of erythritol. The PVP-loaded erythritol composites exhibit little sacrifice in latent heat of fusion, i.e., only ~15% loss when the PVP loading reaches 6.0 wt.%. In addition, multiple tests confirmed that PVP can be dissolved in erythritol, thus desirable compatibility was obtained and the composites would have long-term reliability. This proposed additive enables an efficient and cost-effective way for improving the crystallization behaviors of erythritol (and other polyol PCMs) towards real-world applications.

Automated summary

This study proposed a potential additive, polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), to reduce the supercooling effect of erythritol, a promising polyol PCM candidate. The addition of PVP significantly reduced the degree of supercooling and increased the retrievable latent heat during crystallization. Multiple tests confirmed the compatibility and long-term reliability of PVP-loaded erythritol composites.