Preparation and characterization of a shape-stable xylitol/expanded graphite composite phase change material for thermal energy storage

Xylitol with high latent heat of 243.28 kJ/kg and a significant supercooling degree has been considered to be a potential phase change material (PCM) for long-term thermal energy storage (TES). Xylitol can be kept in a supercooled or supersaturated metastable for a long time. In our study, it took 23 days and 30 min respectively that xylitol liquid and xylitol liquid adding 5 wt% ethanol crystallized completely at room temperature of 15 ± 5 °C. Unfortunately, the low thermal conductivity and leakage of xylitol restrict its thermal performance. In this paper, xylitol/expanded graphite (EG) composite PCMs with 5, 8, 10, 12 and 15 wt% EG content were prepared by an “impregnation and compression” two-step method. The results of SEM, XRD and FT-IR show that xylitol is well impregnated into the micropores of EG and has good chemical compatibility. The thermal performance test shows that the thermal conductivity of composite PCMs increases dramatically and the latent heat decreases with the increase of EG. The experimental results show that the latent heat of 10 wt% EG is 209.73 kJ/kg and 192.18 kJ/kg, respectively, during the charging and discharging process. The thermal conductivity of 10 wt% EG is 3.91 W/(m·K), as 9.29 times as xylitol. Besides, the crystallization of xylitol in EG and the mass loss of the composites have also been studied. The results show that 10 wt% EG composites crystallized completely after 16 days. These results prove that xylitol/EG composite PCMs have broad application prospects in long-term TES. ∙A shape-stable xylitol/expanded graphite composite phase change material was prepared.∙The crystallization process of xylitol liquid and xylitol liquid adding 5 wt% ethanol at ambient temperature was studied.∙The thermal properties of shape-stable xylitol/expanded graphite composite phase change material were studied.∙The composite was characterized and the feasibility of its application in long-term thermal energy storage was preliminarily proved.