A review of porous carbon based shape stabilized phase change materials for heat storage

Energy storage technology can solve the contradiction between energy supply and demand in time and space and thus improve energy utilization efficiency. As a potential heat storage technology,phase change heat storage is widely used in solar energy,energysaving buildings,industrial waste heat recovery and thermal management systems. Its heat storage medium is phase change materials(PCMs) which mainly include solidsolid PCMs and solidliquid PCMs. The PCMs can achieve the dual purposes of heat storage and temperature control due to their large latent heat and constant phase change temperature. Solidliquid PCMs are a kind of phase change materials that are widely studied. They have the advantages of highenergy storage density,adjustable phase change temperature,stable chemical properties and low price. However,the application of solidliquid PCMs is hindered by liquid leakage during phase change,low thermal conductivity and phase separation. Those problems can be solved by introducing porous materials into solidliquid PCMs. Particularly,the shapestabilized PCMs prepared with porous carbon matrix exhibit enhanced mechanical strength,improved thermal conductivity,excellent encapsulation and stability. This review systematically summarizes the research progress of porous carbonbased shapestabilized PCMs. The effects of the pore structure,surface modification,mass fraction and intermolecular force of expanded graphite,carbon nanotubes,graphene oxides and biological porous carbon on the shapestabilized capacity,thermal performances and phase change behaviors of shapestabilized PCMs are analyzed. Meanwhile,the performances of shapestabilized PCMs prepared with other porous carbon matrices are discussed,such as active carbon,carbon foam and carbon nitride. The research status on the application of porous carbonbased shapestabilized PCMs is also introduced. At last,by comparing the main performances and different advantages of shapestabilized PCMs prepared with different porous carbon matrix,some suggestions for material selection in the application are put forward. Also,the future research topics are outlined