Fast Thermal Response of Shape-Stabilized Thermal Storage Materials: The Case of Interconnected Netlike Graphene/Hexadecane/HDPE Composites.

Fast thermal response and sensitivity of organic latent heat storage materials with inherent low thermal conductivity to external temperatures is still a challenge in their practical applications. Herein, a shape-stable heat storage material composite, composed of interconnected netlike graphene, hexadecane, and commonly used high-density polyethylene (HDPE), was obtained using a convenient melt blending method. The start melting temperature, melting temperature, and end melting temperature of the obtained shape-stabilized thermal storage materials are presented, indicating that the response rate of the composites to ambient temperature could be indeed increased. This is because the interconnected netlike graphene with high conductivity intercalated into the HDPE matrix provided many conductive pathways for heat transfer. Therefore, the thermal conductivity of the composites is increased to 0.67 W/(m·K), which is about 123% higher than that of pure hexadecane. Meanwhile, the structure of polyethylene and hexadecane is similar, and hexadecane is uniformly dispersed in polyethylene and perfectly combined with polyethylene, which can effectively prevent the leakage of hexadecane during the phase transition. Thus, the obtained composites may play an important role in thermal management applications such as heat collection, transportation, thermal power conversion, and so forth.