Preparation and properties of decyl – myristyl alcohol/expanded graphite low temperature composite phase change material

In order to find a low temperature phase change material with a temperature range of 2–8°C, decyl alcohol (DA) and myristyl alcohol (MA) binary eutectic mixture was prepared based on theoretical calculation, with a mass ratio of DA: MA=87:13. DA-CA/EG with an optimal mass ratio of DA-MA: EG=14:1 was obtained after vacuum adsorption. Scanning electron microscope and Fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy results show that DA-MA was uniformly distributed in the porous network structure of EG due to physical action. Phase change temperature and latent heat of DA-MA/EG were measured at 3.55°C and 172.3 J·g−1, and the thermal conductivity was 0.942 W·(m·K)−1, which was 3.4 times higher than DA-MA. After 500 high and low temperature cycles, DA-MA/EG did not change much and still maintained good stability. Overall, the prepared DA-MA/EG composite PCM had great application prospects in cold chain logistics.