New insights on thermal energy storage using nanoparticle enhanced tin

Abstract

This work investigates the influence of different nanoparticles on the reduction of the supercooling degree of tin (phase change material) and the quantity of latent heat recovered during the early stages of freezing in nanoparticle-enhanced phase change materials (NePCM). Different nanoparticles (Cu, CuO, MgO, SiO_x, TiO₂, ZnO) at various concentrations (0.125 wt. %, 0.25 wt. %, 0.5 wt. %, 1 wt. %, 2 wt. %) were used to prepare NePCM using planetary ball milling. The supercooling degree of tin (43.9 K) was found to be suppressed to 22 K in NePCM. The NePCM containing 0.25 wt. % of Cu and the one containing 0.5 wt. % of MgO allowed extraction of 64.2 % and 54.8 % of thermal energy stored, respectively, at temperatures greater than the onset temperature of freezing of pure tin. Thus, our study has uniquely demonstrated the impact of chosen nanomaterials in improving the freezing characteristics of tin.