Encapsulation of Paraffin Phase-Change Materials within Monolithic MTMS-Based Silica Aerogels

To address the leakage issue of paraffin phase-change materials in thermal management, a monolithic MTMS-based silica aerogel (MSA) is employed to encapsulate paraffin through a facile impregnation process. We find that the paraffin and MSA form a physical combination, with little interaction occurring between them. The prepared no-leakage paraffin/MSA composites have a density of 0.70 g/cm(3) and exhibit good mechanical properties and nice hydrophobicity, with a contact angle of 122 degrees. Furthermore, the average latent heat of the paraffin/MSA composites is found to reach up to 209.3 J/g, about 85% of the pure paraffin's latent heat, which is significantly larger than other paraffin/silica aerogel phase-change composite materials. The thermal conductivity of the paraffin/MSA remains almost the same as that of the pure paraffin (similar to 250 mW/m/K), without any heat transfer interference from the MSA skeletons. All these results indicate that MSA can effectively serve as a carrier material for encapsulating paraffin, which is beneficial for expanding the applications of MSAs in thermal management and energy storage.

Automated summary

To address the leakage issue of paraffin phase-change materials, a monolithic MTMS-based silica aerogel is used to encapsulate paraffin via impregnation. The resulting paraffin/MSA composites have a density of 0.70 g/cm(3), good mechanical properties, and hydrophobicity (contact angle of 122 degrees). The composites also have a high latent heat of 209.3 J/g and a thermal conductivity similar to that of pure paraffin, making them suitable for thermal management and energy storage applications.