Construction of a Melamine Foam Scaffold with Vapor-Grown Carbon Fiber toward Fabricating Phase Change Composite Applied in Thermal Management of Firefighting Protection

Phase change materials (PCMs) hold considerable potential for efficient thermal management in reducing heat radiation, providing thermal comfort, and improving thermal protection. However, their practical application has been significantly hindered by various issues, such as leakage, low thermal conductivity, and brittleness. This study addresses these challenges by constructing a porous composite scaffold with melamine foam (MF) as a template and vapor-grown carbon fiber (VGCF) as a highly thermally conductive medium. VGCF was first uniformly dispersed by using polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as a dispersant and then incorporated into the MF matrix to construct a three-dimensional (3D) thermally conductive network throughout the scaffold (PCF/MFx), which was subsequently utilized to encapsulate the thermal storage unit of polyethylene glycol (PEG). The resultant phase change composite (PEG–PCF/MF0.7) exhibited enhanced thermal conductivity, which was 2.57 times that of the control sample without VGCF (PEG-MF). It also demonstrated outstanding photothermal conversion capability and exceptional thermal energy storage performance with a high latent heat of 140.0 J·g–1 and an enthalpy efficiency exceeding 93%. The integration of PEG–PCF/MF0.7 into the glove extended thermal protection time by 352% in the oven test, proving its significant potential for thermal protection application in firefighting gloves.