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Crystallohydrate Loaded Halloysite Nanocontainers for Thermal Energy Storage
Author(s) -
Zhu Xiaolei,
Shchukin Dmitry
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
advanced engineering materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.938
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 1527-2648
pISSN - 1438-1656
DOI - 10.1002/adem.201800618
Subject(s) - halloysite , materials science , thermal energy storage , composite number , thermal stability , chemical engineering , enthalpy , phase change material , sonication , covalent bond , composite material , thermal , thermodynamics , organic chemistry , chemistry , physics , engineering
The mixture of crystallohydrate phase change materials (PCMs) Na 2 HPO 4 · 12H 2 O and Na 2 SO 4 · 10H 2 O is loaded into halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) by water bath sonication and impregnation under vacuum at 40 °C. It is the first time HNTs are applied as nanocontainers for crystallohydrate PCMs for thermal energy storage. The PCM retains well in the nanocontainers over the solid–liquid phase change, due to the electrostatic interaction between PCM and the inner space of HNTs as well as the nanoconfinement effect. No new covalent bonding is formed between PCM and HNTs in the composite. The crystal structure of the hydrated salts mixture does not change after loading into HNTs. With 67 wt% effective loading of Na 2 HPO 4 · 12H 2 O and Na 2 SO 4 · 10H 2 O in 1:1 mass ratio, the nanocontainer composite exhibits the melting temperature of 35.8 °C and the melting enthalpy of 142 J g −1 . During the thermal cycling tests, it shows no phase separation and the thermal stability is well kept for 50 cycles. The PCM/HNTs nanocontainers can be considered as efficient nanoscaled energy storage units with great potential in practical applications.