Enhanced thermal performance and study the influence of sub cooling on activated carbon dispersed eutectic PCM for cold storage applications

Abstract This article investigates the thermo-physical property enhancement of eutectic (oleic and capric acid) based latent thermal energy storage materials for cold storage applications. Highly porous activated carbon (AC) nanosheets were synthesized, which act as nucleators to enhance thermo-physical properties. FT-IR results confirm that the interaction of AC was only physical and no exo/endothermic reactions. Thermo-physical property enhancement was depicted based on the results obtained from the freezing/solidification, DSC, and thermal diffusivity analysis. The heat transfer rate linearly increases for 0.02 wt% to 0.1 wt% of nano dispersed PCM and the maximum time saving was 54% with respect to pure eutectic. Thermal conductivity of the pure PCM were 0.194 W/mK (liquid), 0.201 W/mK (solid) and has been improved by 55% for 0.1 wt% nano dispersed PCM. Linear decrement in the sub-cooling was found to vary between 30% to 63% up to 0.08 wt% of AC, high nucleation rate eradicated sub-cooling from the PCM at 0.1 wt% of AC in base fluid. Slender crystallinity decrement of 4.6% was observed. In addition to thermo-physical properties, theoretical prediction of the PCM properties has also been discussed. The thermo-physical properties of the AC charged eutectics render them elegant candidates for cold storage applications.