Enhanced thermal performance of phase change materials supported by hierarchical porous carbon modified with polydopamine/nano-Ag for thermal energy storage

In order to solve the problem of low thermal conductivity of hierarchical porous carbon-based (HPC) composite phase change materials, a new method was proposed in this paper, in which HPC was modified with polydopamine (PDA) and silver nanoparticles successively, and then incorporated with polyethylene glycol (PEG) to form shape-stabilized phase change composite material (SSPCM). The HPC was prepared by self-sacrificing template method using sucrose and sodium bicarbonate as starting materials. The micro structure, thermal conductivity, thermal stability, chemical compatibility and Photo-thermal conversion capability of the SSPCM were analyzed. The results showed that the SSPCM prepared from the support material modified by PDA and silver nanoparticles still had good chemical compatibility. Besides, the thermal conductivity of SSPCM was significantly improved by 58% compared to the original material, showing superior thermal properties. It was worth noting that the photo-thermal conversion capability of the SSPCM was significantly higher than that of the original material. The SSPCM synthesized on the basis of functionalized hierarchical porous carbon had promising applications in photo-thermal conversion and thermal energy storage and transformation.