UV-cured polymer aided phase change thermal energy storage: Preparation, mechanism and prospects

UV-cured polymerization systems can be cured under photocatalytic conditions and bearing the advantages of fast curing speed and mild curing conditions which are widely used in coatings, adhesives, electronic packaging and other fields. The cured polymer molecules are in a three-dimensional cross-linked network structure which can be entangled with the solid-liquid phase change material molecules and encapsulate them, thus solve the leakage problem of solid-liquid phase change materials in the process of phase change transition state, and giving the composite system heat storage and thermal management functions. In addition, UV-cured polymer-based 3D printing technology offers flexible solutions for complex thermal management and multifunctional phase change material integration. In this review, we summarized the strategies for UV-cured polymers, and which can be used in the field of phase change energy storage with particular emphasis on the following three aspects: (1) classification and curing mechanism of UV-cured polymers; (2) preparation strategies of UV-cured polymer-based composite phase change materials and research progress of thermal energy storage enhancement; (3) 3D printing phase change materials based on UV-cured polymers. Moreover, the development trend and further research directions of 3D printing phase change materials based on UV-cured polymers are prospected.