Theoretical investigation of an enhanced multiphase change energy storage material for buildings

Recent developments have highlighted the potential of multiphase change materials (MCM) as flexible energy storage materials for application in buildings. The MCM was obtained by combining the microencapsulated heptadecane (MEHept) and microencapsulated octacosane (MEOct) using polymelamine formaldehyde (PMF) as the shell material. For the purpose of enhancing thermal performance of MEHept, MEOct, and MCM, different amounts of graphene were included as a thermal conductivity additive. Results indicated the thermal performance improvement of MEHept and MEOct by 39 % and 62 %, respectively, compared to samples without graphene. Analysis of the theoretical results also achieved about 34 % enhancement in thermal conductivity of MCM with an optimum 5 wt% of graphene but resulted in 21 % reduction in energy storage capacity. Despite the study has demonstrated the possibility of using graphene to increase the thermal properties of MCM, deeper experimental work is strongly recommended to align it with the simulation results.