Characterization and thermal properties of Lauryl alcohol – Capric acid with CuO and TiO2 nanoparticles as phase change material for cold storage system

•Lauryl alcohol-Capric acid (LA-CA) binary mixture is proposed for energy storage.•The melting temperature of LA-CA and LA-CA/CuO is 9.57 ℃ and 8.7 ℃, respectively.•The thermal conductivity of LA-CA/CuO is 17.56% higher than the LA-CA mixture.•DSC and TGA analysis show that the LA-CA/CuO PCM has excellent thermal stability.•LA-CA and LA-CA/CuO mixtures are suitable for cold storage applications. A novel phase change material (PCM) is proposed via the binary mixture of Lauryl alcohol-Capric acid (LA-CA) in the weight % of 53:47; later, the TiO2 and CuO nanoparticles were added to the PCM mixture by 0.25 wt%. Chemical and thermal characterization of the LA-CA mixtures has been examined, and the results indicated that the stability of the mixtures is significant for thermal energy storage (TES) application. The Melting temperature of the synthesized PCM mixture is 9.57 ℃, and the latent heat is 159.4 J/g. After incorporating nanoparticles, the proposed LA-CA/CuO PCM’s thermal conductivity is improved by 17.56% with a melting temperature of 8.7 ℃ and latent heat of 159.1 J/g. The thermal and chemical stability of the proposed LA-CA/CuO PCM is excellent even after 1000 cycles. The findings concluded that the novel PCM of LA-CA/CuO is a potential material for low temperature cold storage systems.