Fabrication and investigation of paraffin based shape-stable composite phase change materials with styrene ethylene butylene styrene as supporting skeleton for low temperature thermal energy storage and management

Paraffin based composite phase change materials (PCMs) have gained intensive attentions in low temperature thermal energy storage (TES) and management application domains because of its suitable melting temperature range and advanced thermoproperties. Seeking decent structural supporting materials (SSM) and the associated manufacturing approaches that capable of fabricating paraffin composites at appropriate temperatures to avert the thermal decomposition of the paraffin particularly for low-molecule ones are in high demand. Herein, we developed a low-molecule paraffin (RT18HC) composite through a simple blending approach by using styrene-ethylene/butylene-styrene (SEBS) as SSM, and showed that such SEBS-paraffin composites could be able to fabricate at a low operation temperature of 80 °C, significantly lower than that required for the preparation of conventional high density polyethylene (HDPE)-paraffin composites. To enhance the composite effective thermal conductivity, a micro-sized graphite power as enhancer was also involved over the fabrication process. Owing to the desirable solubility of paraffin in SEBS, a crosslinking structure inlaying paraffin and graphite was formed, endowing the composite with ability to maintain the structure stabilization and eliminate the graphite sedimentation over the repeated thermal cycles. 10 wt% of SEBS gives the composite optimum formulation at which 10 wt% graphite can be involved, and also an excellent shape stability and thermal adjustment ability can be achieved.