Development of Paraffin-Based Shape-Stable Phase Change Material for Thermal Energy Storage

Abstract In the present work, a shape-stable phase change material has been prepared by blending the polystyrene-block-poly(ethylene-ran-butylene)-block-polystyrene triblock copolymer and paraffin. Different mass fractions of block copolymer have been used to produce composites material. The structural, chemical and morphological analyses of composites have been done. Differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetric analysis results indicated that the addition of supporting material (block copolymer) improves the thermal stability without much affecting the phase transition temperature of paraffin. The paraffin leakage in composites is analyzed by mass loss over thermal cycles in an oven at 80°C and the best performance has been achieved for 20 wt% of block copolymer into the composite. The thermal reliability of this sample has been investigated after 100 thermal cycles. Overall inspection of results suggested that the prepared composite is the most appropriate shape-stable phase change material for thermal energy storage applications because of their acceptable energy storage capacity, good thermal stability and reliability, physical and chemical compatibility, low cost and easy synthesis process.