Enhancing thermo-physical properties of paraffin wax phase change material with MXene nanoflakes for improved energy storage and heat transfer applications

• MXene nanoflakes enhance the thermal conductivity of paraffin wax by up to 16%. • The specific heat capacity of PW-MXene nanocomposites increases by 45% at 0.03 M concentration. • The thermal stability of PW improves with higher degradation temperatures observed in MXene composites. • MXene-based PW nanocomposites are promising for efficient thermal energy storage in renewable energy systems. Energy storage (ES) is one of the major challenges today, particularly with the growing demand for renewable energy sources. Due to high latent heat (LH) capacity, phase change materials (PCMs) such as paraffin wax (PW) have been widely used for thermal energy storage (TES); the low thermal conductivity (TC) of PW limits its practical usage. This research aims to comprehend how a recently identified class of inorganic two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials, MXene, can enhance the thermophysical characteristics of PW as a PCM. This study focused on the enhancement of TC, specific heat capacity (c p ), and thermal stability (TS) by dispersing MXene nanoparticles into paraffin wax at different concentrations, including 0.01 M, 0.03 M, and 0.05 M. We observed an increase in the TC of 16% and enhanced c p of 45% with the 0.03 M concentration of MXene. The degradation temperature of the PW-MXene nanocomposite was elevated by 6%, suggesting an improvement in the thermal stability of the nanocomposite. These results suggest that MXene-enhanced paraffin wax composites are promising building energy management and solar thermal energy storage systems. These materials are suitable as sustainable energy materials due to the improved thermal properties for efficient heat transfer in renewable energy technologies. This research validates that thermal management and heat transfer applications based on MXene nanocomposites have a high energy storage efficiency for future applications.