Achieving Efficient Solar Energy Harvesting and Storage Through Phase Change Material with Copper-Carbon Dual Network

Abstract

Solar energy is a commonly used green and renewable energy source. Using phase change material (PCM) to store overloaded solar energy as the form of latent heat can achieve sustainable use of solar energy. However, two challenges exist in this process, which is solar energy should be harvested efficiently and meanwhile transferred to the mass of PCM quickly. In this paper, copper foam and expanded graphite were used to construct the dual network structure with high thermal conductivity. The top part of the dual skeleton exposed to act directly as a light absorption system. When the content of the dual skeleton was only 24 wt%, the thermal conductivity of the composite PCM increased from 0.2 W/mk to 5.3 W/mk, with the full-spectrum absorptivity of 94%. Meanwhile, the latent heat of composite PCM can still reach 176 J/g, which has great advantages compared to similar materials. In this regard, composite PCM in this paper presents potential applications in the field of solar energy storage.

Keywords: phase change material, copper foam, expanded graphite, Thermal conductivity, solar energy storage.