Advances in Biocarbon and Soft Material Assembly for Enthalpy Storage: Fundamentals, Mechanisms, and Multimodal Applications

High-value-added biomass materials like biocarbon are being actively pursued integrating them with soft materials in a broad range of advanced renewable energy technologies owing to their advantages, such as lightweight, relatively low-cost, diverse structural engineering applications, and high energy storage potential. Consequently, the hybrid integration of soft and biomass-derived materials shall store energy to mitigate intermittency issues, primarily through enthalpy storage during phase change. This paper introduces the recent advances in the development of natural biomaterial-derived carbon materials in soft material assembly and its applications in multidirectional renewable energy storage. Various emerging biocarbon materials (biochar, carbon fiber, graphene, nanoporous carbon nanosheets (2D), and carbon aerogel) with intrinsic structures and engineered designs for enhanced enthalpy storage and multimodal applications are discussed. The fundamental design approaches, working mechanisms, and feature applications, such as including thermal management and electromagnetic interference shielding, sensors, flexible electronics and transparent nanopaper, and environmental applications of biocarbon-based soft material composites are highlighted. Furthermore, the challenges and potential opportunities of biocarbon-based composites are identified, and prospects in biomaterial-based soft materials composites are presented. This review provides up-to-date design progress in biomass-derived materials in soft materials assembly for applications in enthalpy storage and renewable energy technology development. It highlights structural engineering, mechanisms, and advancements in various application areas, such as thermal management, electronics, and environment. This is expected to guide a deeper understanding of advanced biocarbon-based composite construction for sustainable energy development and management.image

Automated summary

This paper introduces the recent advances in the development of biomaterial-derived carbon materials in soft material assembly and its applications in renewable energy storage. It highlights the applications of biocarbon-based composites in areas such as thermal management, electronics, and environment, and identifies the challenges and potential opportunities.