Thermal energy storage-oriented design of copper nanoparticle-coated waste polyester–acrylic blend fibers/paraffin composite PCM with enhanced thermal conductivity and storage capacity
Journal of Energy Storage, cilt.181, 2026 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
- Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
- Cilt numarası: 181
- Basım Tarihi: 2026
- Doi Numarası: 10.1016/j.est.2026.124443
- Dergi Adı: Journal of Energy Storage
- Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Compendex, INSPEC
- Anahtar Kelimeler: Composite phase change material, Electroless copper coating, Latent heat storage, Paraffin wax, Passive thermal management, Thermal conductivity, Thermal energy storage, Waste polyester–acrylic blend fibers
- Karadeniz Teknik Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
The rapidly developing process of electrification along with increasing power density of electronic systems requires the use of passive thermal energy systems capable of storing energy with high latent heats and with good abilities to provide no loss of stored energy. Despite this fact, conventional organic PCMs are characterized by low thermal conductivity. This means that the introduction of conducting fillers into organic PCMs unavoidably leads to a decrease of the amount of active PCM used for energy storage. Hence, there has been constant research on a new form-stable type of PCMs characterized by both good latent heat storage properties and high thermal conductivity. This work presents a newly developed thermally conductive composite PCM, derived from waste. It possesses good properties of high-melting paraffin wax and electroless Cu-coated waste synthetic wool (blend of polyester and acrylic) fibers(WW@Cu). WW formed a light porous frame structure preventing PCM leakage while Cu coating provided the formation of heat transfer paths providing good thermal charging/ discharging characteristics. The maximum WW@Cu mass ratio of 0.30 allowed the composite to keep 75 wt% paraffin wax without any leakages. The melting and freezing enthalpies recorded at the phase transition temperatures of 47.4 ± 0.10 and 48.6 ± 0.13 °C were 161.2 ± 0.12 and 160.4 ± 0.15 J·g−1 respectively. Following 400 heating-cooling cycles, the melting and freezing enthalpies fell slightly to 158.7 ± 0.15 and 157.7 ± 0.14 J·g−1, respectively, which proved good cycling stability. The thermal conductivity improved greatly from 0.181 ± 0.009 to 1.464 ± 0.09 W·m−1·K−1 in the case of the WW@Cu/PWax composite compared with the WW/PWax one, which equals almost eight times increase. The results obtained from infrared thermal imaging and T-history experiments confirmed faster absorption of heat, better temperature uniformity, and improved thermal response brought by the pathways created by Cu. Thus, waste synthetic wool networks covered with electroless Cu can be considered an affordable and eco-friendly material that helps stabilize contents and improve heat transfer in high-performance thermal energy storage systems.