Superhydrophobic Multi-Shell Hollow Microsphere Confined Phase Change Materials for Solar Photothermal Conversion and Energy Storage

The development of efficient solar photothermal conversion and energy storage (SPCS) technology is of great significance to solve the imbalance between supply and demand of solar energy utilization in time and space. Herein, we prepare multi-shell hollow spheres by selecting glucose as the template and magnesium carbonate trihydrate (MgCO3·3H2O) and chloroplatinic acid hexahydrate (H2PtCl6·6H2O) as raw materials by hydrothermal-calcination method. Octadecylamine (ODA) is loaded into MSHS by vacuum impregnation to prepare SPCS composites with excellent comprehensive properties (MSHS@ODA). MSHS@ODA possess a high light absorption (75.5%), thermal conductivity (0.35 W/m·K) and phase change enthalpy (130.7 J/g). The average efficiency of photothermal conversion can reach 80.3%. Meanwhile, MSHS@ODA also has superhydrophobic and acid alkali resistant properties. The multi-layer hollow microspheres provide the micro-nano space structure for ODA, enhance the heat transfer rate of MSHS@ODA, effectively solve the leakage problem, and enable MSHS@ODA to have a fast photothermal response while maintaining a high energy storage density during 100 cyclic phase change tests. In addition, in the charge and discharge process of lithium-ion battery, MSHS@ODA shows an excellent thermal management role, so that lithium-ion battery can work in the best range.