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Article
Carbon Nanoadditives to Enhance Latent Energy Storage of Phase Change Materials
Journal of Applied Physics
  • Shadab Shaikh, University of Dayton
  • Khalid Lafdi, University of Dayton
  • Kevin P. Hallinan, University of Dayton
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2008
Abstract

Latent energy storage capacity was analyzed for a system consisting of carbon nanoparticlesdopedphase changematerials (PCMs). Three types of samples were prepared by doping shell wax with single wall carbon nanotubes(SWCNTs), multiwall CNTs, and carbon nanofibers. Differential scanning calorimetry was used to measure the latent heat of fusion. The measured values of latent heat for all the samples showed a good enhancement over the latent heat of pure wax. A maximum enhancement of approximately 13% was observed for the wax/SWCNT composite corresponding to 1% loading of SWCNT. The change in latent heat was modeled by using an approximation for the intermolecular attraction based on the Lennard-Jones potential. A theoretical model was formulated to estimate the overall latent energy of the samples with the variation in volume fraction of the nanoparticles. The predicted values of latent energy from the model showed good agreement with the experimental results. It was concluded that the higher molecular density of the SWCNT and its large surface area were the reasons behind the greater intermolecular attraction in the wax/SWCNT composite, which resulted in its enhanced latent energy. The novel approach used to predict the latent heat of fusion of the wax/nanoparticle composites has a particular significance for investigating the latent heat of PCM with different types of nanoparticle additives.

Inclusive pages
094302-1 to 094302-6
ISBN/ISSN
0021-8979
Document Version
Published Version
Comments

This document has been archived and made available for download in compliance with the publisher's policy on self-archiving. Permission documentation is on file.

Publisher
American Institute of Physics
Peer Reviewed
Yes
Citation Information
Shadab Shaikh, Khalid Lafdi and Kevin P. Hallinan. "Carbon Nanoadditives to Enhance Latent Energy Storage of Phase Change Materials" Journal of Applied Physics Vol. 103 Iss. 9 (2008)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/kevin-hallinan/1/