Preparation and thermal conductivity enhancement of fly ash-diatomite-based composite phase change materials

The resource utilization of solid waste is an important way to achieve energy saving and emission reduction. A lauric acid (LA)/raw fly ash (RFA)-diatomite(DT)/carbon nanotubes(CNT) composite form-stable phase change materials (FSPCM) for thermal energy storage were prepared via simple direct impregnation method, in which LA, RFA-DT binary matrix and CNT were employed as phase change materials(PCMs), the supporting material, and thermal conductive additive, respectively. The loading capacity, structure and thermal properties of FSCPCM were investigated through the diffusion-oozing testing, Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermo gravimetry analysis (TGA) and paperless recorder, respectively. The results show that the RFA-DT binary material can effectively prevent the leakage of LA. When the mass fraction of LA in composite is 28%, the FSPCM without leakage can be obtained. What’s more, the utilization rate of RFA reaches 55%. The FTIR demonstrates that FSPCM has good compatibility between its four components, LA, RFA-DT, and CNT. The melting onset temperature of FSPCM is 45.79 ℃ measured by DSC, and the corresponding latent heat of FSPCM is determined as 51.06 J/g. TGA analysis shows LA/RFA-DT has good thermal stability. The storage/release performance curve indicates that when mass fraction of CNT is added with 5%, the melting and solidification time of LA/RFA-DT/CNT are decreased by 60% and 62.5%, respectively, indicating that the heat transfer performance is remarkably improved