Preparation and thermal properties of cross-linked poly(acrylonitrile-co-itaconate)/polyethylene glycol as novel form-stable phase change material for thermal energy storage

In this paper, a novel form-stable phase change material (FSPCM) of cross-linked poly(acrylonitrile-co-itaconate) (P(AN-co-IA))/polyethylene glycol (PEG) blend was prepared successfully. And it was systematically characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), polarized optical microscopy (POM), Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Thermal gravity analysis (TGA). FTIR analysis indicates that the cross-linked network has been synthesized. The DSC results show that the cross-linked FSPCM owns excellent phase change properties. The phase change temperatures and latent heats of the cross-linked FSPCM are in the range of 29–53   °C and 56.98–97.46   J/g, respectively. The TGA manifest that the cross-linked FSPCM appears good thermal stability and a broad processing temperature range.