Development of polyurethane foam incorporating phase change material for thermal energy storage

abstract

The major aim of the present study is to improve the thermal characteristics of polyurethane foams (PUFs) that have been almost exclusively used for thermal insulation purposes but can also play a role in potential thermal energy storage components as a matrix material. To overcome the low thermal conductivity of the of PUFs matrix, a synthesized phase change material (PCM) based on paraffin and calcium carbonate (CaCO3) has been developed to enhance the thermal conductivity and thus achieve a more effective charging and discharging process. The synthesized PCM (PCM@CaCO3) exhibited a good phase change performance with significant thermal storage capacity and thermal stability compared to commercial based PCM (PCM@BASF). Different PUFs formulations incorporating PCM (PCM@CaCO3 and PCM@BASF) were used to produce PUFs panels (rigid and soft PUFs panels). The thermal conductivity of the PUFs panels was measured using the transient plane heat source method (HotDisk Analyser, TPS 2500 S) and the thermal flux metre method (steady-state method). The results obtained revealed that, regardless of the method used, the thermal conductivity profile has a similar increasing trend before and after the bounds of the PCM phase change transition zone, whilst during PCM phase transition both methods showed a decreasing trend of the thermal conductivity as the temperature increased. In addition, this work presents and discusses the limitation of the HotDisk method to analyse panels composed by multilayers.

keywords

CALCIUM-CARBONATE SHELL; SELF-ASSEMBLY SYNTHESIS; CHANGE MICROCAPSULES; CONDUCTIVITY; ENHANCEMENT; PERFORMANCE; MICROENCAPSULATION; COMPOSITE; PCM; ENCAPSULATION

subject category

Energy & Fuels

authors

Amaral, C; Pinto, SC; Silva, T; Mohseni, F; Amaral, JS; Amaral, VS; Marques, PAAP; Barros-Timmons, A; Vicente, R

Groups

G1 - Porous Materials and Nanosystems
G2 - Photonic, Electronic and Magnetic Materials
G4 - Renewable Materials and Circular Economy

Projects

CICECO - Aveiro Institute of Materials (UID/CTM/50011/2019)

Projeto de Investigação Exploratória: João Amaral (IF/01089/2015)

acknowledgements

This work was developed under the scope of the project: MF-Retrofit -Multifunctional facades of reduced thickness for fast and cost-effective retrofitting [EeB.NMP.2013-1 Grant Agreement to: 609345] and within the scope of CICECO-Aveiro Institute of Materials, UID/CTM/50011/2019, financed by national funds through the FCT/MCTES and TEMA - Centre for Mechanical Technology and Automation, UID/EMS/00481/2019-FCT - FCT -Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia and CENTRO-01-0145-FEDER-022083 - Centro Portugal Regional Operational Programme(Centro2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Thanks are due to University of Aveiro, FCT/MEC for the financial support to the research Unit RISCO - Aveiro Research Centre of Risks and Sustainability in Construction (FCT/UID/ECI/04450/2013) and to Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology, ICT, specially to Kristian Kowollik for the panels production. JSA acknowledges FCT IF/01089/2015 grant. Special thanks to Ana Violeta Girao for the STEM and EDX analysis.