Spatiotemporal Utilization of Latent Heat in Erythritol‐based Phase Change Materials as Solar Thermal Fuels

This work presents an erythritol-based phase change material as a new type of solar thermal fuels. The material can harvest, convert, and store solar energy as latent heat, which can be released as thermal energy on demand. The composite material is cost-effective, easy to synthesize, and has a superior solar thermal energy utilization performance. This new concept could promote related solar energy utilization techniques.

Abstract

Solar thermal fuels (STFs) have been particularly concerned as sustainable future energy due to their impressive ability to store solar energy in chemical bonds and controllably release thermal energy. However, currently studied STFs mainly focus on molecule-based materials with high photochemical activity, toxicity, and compromised features, which greatly restricts their applications in practical scenarios of solar energy utilization. Herein, we present a novel erythritol-based composite phase change material (PCM) as a new type of STFs with an outstanding capability to store solar energy as latent heat in its stable supercooling state and release thermal energy as needed. This composite PCM with stored thermal energy can be maintained stably at room temperature and subsequently release latent heat as high as 224.9 J/g during the crystallization process triggered by thermal stimuli. Remarkably, solar energy can be converted into latent heat stored in the composite PCM over months. Through mechanical stimulations, the released latent heat can increase the temperature of the composite up to 91 °C. This work presents a new concept of using spatiotemporal storage and release of latent heat in PCMs for solar energy utilization, making it a potential candidate as STFs for developing future clean energy techniques.

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