Phase change aerogels based on polyvinyl alcohol for enhanced thermal insulation applications

Traditional thermal insulation materials can slow down the transfer of heat while having the drawback of being vulnerable to the environmental factors and low energy utilization efficiency. In this work, the 1-octadecanol (OD) phase change aerogels based on polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) were fabricated through simple freezing-thawing cycles and lyophilization. The prepared PVA/GX/OD-4 aerogel exhibits a high phase change enthalpy up to 149.5 J/g and a thermal conductivity as low as 0.0795 W·m −1 ·K −1 , showing superior hot-water heat-preservation performance compared with ceramic fiber papers. Meanwhile, the aerogel demonstrates exceptional mechanical properties, achieving a compressive strength of 9.72 MPa at 80 % strain with a low density of only 0.2108 g/cm 3 and displays thermal reliability during continuous heating-cooling repetition processes, with only a 1.8 % decrease in heat value after 100 thermal cycles. This work offers a simple and efficient strategy for the design of thermal insulation materials with energy storage capabilities which have significant potential for practical applications within the realm of thermal insulation.