Low-temperature cold energy storage phase change materials and their property enhancement

Cold storage is one of the technologies that can improve energy utilization efficiency, which can effectively solve the contradiction of mismatch between supply and demand of energy in terms of time and space. The use of phase change materials (PCMs) for cold energy storage has the advantage of high storage density, which needs to be investigated thoroughly. It can be seen from the previous papers that researchers mainly focused on the storage of cold energy above −30 °C, especially above 0 °C, and there were few studies on the storage of cold energy in much lower temperature range. Therefore, the low-temperature storage PCMs, especially the PCMs in the range of −30 to −60 °C, are summarized and analyzed, and the encapsulation methods and performance improvement schemes of the cold storage PCMs were also reviewed. It can be seen that the current research on low-temperature storage PCMs is not wide and deep enough. Research suggestions were put forward to provide reference for future research.