Prediction of thermal transport properties for Na2CO3/Graphene based phase change material with sandwich structure for thermal energy storage

In this paper, a new Na2CO3/Graphene based phase change material (PCM) with sandwich structure was proposed and designed for the application of thermal energy storage, the microstructure of which was established, and its thermal transport properties were investigated by means of molecular dynamics sim-ulations, and the prediction method for transport properties with desired accuracy was also developed and determined. The results indicate that the construction of sandwich structure leads to the limiting effect of ions contained in the PCM simulation system, and the self-diffusion coefficient was reduced and shear viscosity was increased. Besides, the construction of sandwich structure was benefit to the thermal conductivity enhancement, the thermal conductivity of PCM can be increased by 32.51% on average in the studied temperature range, and the maximum enhancement can reach to 51.37%, which provides an attractive possible strategy for thermal conductivity improvement for molten salt based PCM, which is expected applied in the concentrated solar power generation system. (c) 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

In this paper, a new Na2CO3/Graphene based phase change material (PCM) with sandwich structure is proposed and designed for thermal energy storage application. The microstructure is established and the thermal transport properties are investigated. The results show that the sandwich structure leads to the limiting effect of ions in the PCM system, reducing the self-diffusion coefficient and increasing the shear viscosity. Moreover, the sandwich structure benefits the enhancement of thermal conductivity, with an average increase of 32.51% and a maximum enhancement of 51.37%, providing a possible strategy for thermal conductivity improvement in molten salt based PCM.