Research progress in carbon nanotube/paraffin phase change composites

Abstract

Paraffin phase change composite material (PPCCM) has attracted increasing attention and research from scholars at home and abroad because of its excellent latent heat value and high energy storage density. As an important class of medium and low temperature phase change materials, PPCCM is the first choice to prepare room temperature and low-temperature composite phase change materials. However, the risk of low thermal conductivity and some defects are obstacles for the industrialization of PPCCM. Due to the unique structure of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with complex coils and excellent thermal conductivity, CNTs is considered as one of the important candidate materials that are expected to improve the thermal performance of PPCCM significantly. Therefore, the combination of CNTs and paraffin has become a hot issue. In this review, according to the current research status of CNTs and PPCCM in the past few years, the preparation, microencapsulation and practical application were systematically summarized. The challenges(complex preparation process, poor stability, few actual evaluation, etc.) and possible research priorities(doping ratio, wettability, economy, etc.) were also discussed.

Keywords

• organic phase change material
• paraffin
• carbon nanotube
• microcapsule
• energy storage