Storing renewable thermal energy with nanofibers and phase change materials

What is it about?

Heat or “thermal” energy is a promising source of renewable energy. Heat can be released during many processes. These include temperature changes, chemical reactions, and phase changes (solid to liquid) of materials. A material that releases enough heat during phase change to provide useful heating is called a phase change material (PCM). PCMs have high energy storage density and are suitable for storing thermal energy. But, they often leak out from the system. This reduces the system efficiency and lifetime, and increases pollution. One way to solve this problem is to use nanofibers to enclose the PCMs. These are fibers with diameters less than 1000 or 100 nm. Nanofibers are stable and have many useful properties. These include large surface area, good heat conduction, high loading, and thermal storage capacity. Due to this, they can improve thermal energy storage along with PCMs. In this paper, the authors reviewed and compared the PCM content and storage capacities of different nanofibers containing PCMs. They discussed the different methods for fabricating such fibers. In one case, the PCM is enclosed in the fiber with uniaxial electrospinning of a PCM and fiber blend. Another method is coaxial electrospinning, which uses a PCM core and a fiber sheath. Finally, in another method, the PCM is merged into the fibers after electrospinning using solvents.

Featured Image

Photo by Jens Oosterink on Unsplash

Photo by Jens Oosterink on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Storing heat efficiently is an important part of thermal management. The heat storage capacity of PCMs is ideal for this. But, PCMs can leak and cause pollution. Another material that is useful for this purpose is nanofibers. This study looked at how heat storage can be improved by combining nanofibers and PCMs to solve the leakage issue. By comparing the different methods for combining them, they showed that PCMs merged with fibers using solvents show higher storage capacity, loading, and absorption. In addition, they are more stable than the other fibers. KEY TAKEAWAY: This study looks at the ways of improving the storage and management of thermal energy by combining PCMs and nanofibers.