A Novel Flexible Carbon Fiber with Carbon Nanotubes Growing In-site to Impregnate Paraffin for Thermal Energy Application

AbstractAiming at solid waste resources reuse and energy saving issue, a novel flexible paraffin/carbon fiber@carbon nanotubes (Paraffin/CF@CNTs) composite PCM was prepared in this study. In the flexible composite PCM, CNTs grow surrounding with recycled CF trunk via chemical vapor deposition to construct the fiber net-structure utilized as the supporting material, and paraffin as thermal energy storage material was absorbed into spongy CF@CNTs by vacuum impregnation methods. TG results show the paraffin/CF@CNTs composite decomposes over 215.6℃ with totally 51.9% mass loss. DSC results indicate Paraffin/CF@CNTs composite melts at 40.01 ℃ with latent heat of 81.94 Jg-1after solid-solid phase transition with 15.28 Jg-1, while the thermal conductivity of Paraffin/CF@CNTs composite (1.551 Wm-1K-1) is enhanced by 573% than that of pure paraffin. Moreover, thermal cycling measurements show the Paraffin/CF@CNTs composite PCM has adequate structure, chemical component and thermal stability even after being subjected to 300 melting/freezing cycles. In result, the novel flexible composite PCM looks promising for applications in electronic device temperature control, near-infrared stealth, smart wear and textile industry.