Novel and durable composite phase change thermal energy storage materials with controllable melting temperature

The development of high temperature phase change materials(PCMs)with great comprehensive performance is significant in the future thermal energy storage system.In this study,novel and durable Al-Si/Al_(2)O_(3)-Al N composite PCMs with controllable melting temperature were successfully synthesized by using pristine Al powder as raw material and tetraethyl orthosilicate as SiO_(2)source.The Al_(2)O_(3)shell and Al-Si alloy were in-situ produced via the substitution reaction between molten Al and SiO_(2).Importantly,the crack caused by the incomplete encapsulation of the Al_(2)O_(3)shell could repair itself by the nitridation reaction of internal molten Al and thereby forming a highly dense Al_(2)O_(3)-Al N composite shell.The produced dense Al_(2)O_(3)-Al N composite shell could significantly improve the thermal cycling stability of composite PCMs,and thus,the thermal storage density decrease of the Al-Si/Al_(2)O_(3)-Al N(59.8 J/g to77.7 J/g)was far less than that of the Al-Si/Al_(2)O_(3)(118.5 J/g)after 3000 thermal cycles.Moreover,the synthesized Al-Si/Al_(2)O_(3)-Al N still exhibited a controllable melting temperature(571.5-637.9℃),relatively high thermal storage density(105.6-150.7 J/g),great dimensional stability and structural stability after3000 thermal cycles.Hence,the synthesized Al-Si/Al_(2)O_(3)-Al N composite PCMs,as promising preferential thermal energy storage materials,can be stably used in the energy utilization efficiency improvement of various systems for more than 6 years.