One-pot preparation of phase change material employing nano-scaled resorcinol-furfural frameworks

Mainstream phase change material (PCM) for the thermal management of battery modules has been suffering from the leakage issue due to the weak capillary condensation from its micron-scaled polymer framework. Therefore, in this work, we design a high-stable and leakage-proof composite PCM (CPCM) by in-situ constructing a nano-scaled resorcinol-furfural polymer framework (RF-PF) in PCM via a one-pot strategy. Compared to classical micron-scaled framework of epoxy resin, the nano-scaled RF-PF stacks into a three-dimensionally mesoporous structure, and thus provides a much more intensive adsorbability towards PCM to prevent leakage. The mass retention rate of the RF-PF-based CPCM (RF-CPCM) during the leakage tests is up to 99.84 wt%. Combining with the suitable thermo-physical properties including a phase change enthalpy of 107.18 J g −1 , phase change temperature region of 40– ∼ 55 °C and thermal conductivity of 1.58 W m −1 K −1 , the RF-CPCM demonstrates effective and stable thermal management performances towards the pouch and cylindrical battery modules. For example, the temperature of the pouch battery module can be controlled below 41.15, 44.16 and 46.82 °C during 0.5-C, 1-C and 2-C discharges, respectively. During the accelerated aging test, the leakage trace appearing on the traditional CPCM module, is effectively overcome in the RF-CPCM module.