Solid–Liquid Phase Change Composite Materials for Direct Solar–Thermal Energy Harvesting and Storage

作者：Xiaoxiang Li, Yizhe Liu, Yangzhe Xu, Peng Tao, Tao Deng · 发表于：Accounts of Materials Research · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.1021/accountsmr.2c00251 · 被引用次数：71 · 研究领域：Phase Change Materials Research、Solar Thermal and Photovoltaic Systems、Solar-Powered Water Purification Methods

Conspectus Solar–thermal energy storage (STES) is an effective and attractive avenue to overcome the intermittency of solar radiation and boost the power density for a variety of thermal related applications. Benefiting from high fusion enthalpy, narrow storage temperature ranges, and relatively low expansion coefficients, solid–liquid phase change materials (PCMs) have been viewed as one of the promising candidates for large-capacity STES. Organic and inorganic PCMs, however, generally suffer from poor solar absorption, slow thermal diffusion, and leakage problems, which seriously limit their direct STES applications. Preparing composites through compounding functional fillers with PCMs has been investigated as the mainstream route to enhance their thermophysical properties, but optimizing the charging, storage, and discharging performances of PCM systems remains a grand challenge. Most often, improved STES performances were achieved at the sacrifice of reduced energy storage capacity. Simultaneous enhancement of STES performances has been viable in recent years through fabricating PCM composites with lightly loaded functional fillers and tailoring their heat diffusion and solid–liquid phase change kinetics. In this Account, we discuss recent progress in developing large-capacity solid–liquid STES PCM composites that can achieve rapid direct charging, long-term stable storage, and controlled heat release. Such lightly loaded composites take advantage of rapid transportation ...