Enhanced leakage-proof performance of flexible phase change materials through the transformation of physicochemical crosslinked networks

Abstract

Organic solid-liquid phase change materials (PCMs) show broad prospects in thermal regulation applications due to their salient thermal energy storage capacity and nearly isothermal characteristic during thermal charging and discharging processes. However, their intrinsic melt leakage and inflexibility significantly limit their applications, especially for the thermal regulation of emerging wearable technologies. Herein, a physicochemical crosslinking transformation strategy is developed for the large-scale production of advanced flexible PCMs through integrating paraffin wax (PW) into the robust polymer network. The resultant flexible PCMs exhibit excellent leakage-proof and water-proof performance. Meanwhile, the tunable polymer supporting network endows the flexible PCMs with high phase change enthalpy (>150 J g⁻¹) and considerable ductility (>60 %), balancing the trade-off among shape stability, flexibility and phase change enthalpy of organic solid-liquid PCMs. In addition, the flexible PCMs provide an effective cooling solution on electronics, displaying promising thermal management applications on highly integrated electronics, wearable systems, and outdoor devices.