Fast Charging of a Thermal Accumulator Based on Paraffin with the Addition of 0.3 wt. % rGO

Abstract

The composite of paraffin with reduced graphene oxide (paraffin/rGO) was obtained at 70 °C by the mechanical mixing of the components followed by ultrasonic dispersion. The introduction of only 0.3 wt.% rGO stained the paraffin black. It has been shown that thermal batteries made from 160 grams of pure paraffin and 160 grams of the composite are equally slow at charging when placed in boiling water. However, two minutes of microwave heating increases the temperature of the pure paraffin battery to only 32 °C, while the temperature of the paraffin/rGO composite battery rises to 74 °C, which is above the paraffin solid–liquid phase transition temperature.

Keywords

• reduced graphene oxide
• paraffin
• composites
• phase change materials
• thermal accumulator
• microwave irradiation