Preparation and Performance of Myristic Acid/Silicon Dioxide Composites as Thermal Energy Storage Materials

Abstract

The myristic acid/silicon dioxide composite materials were prepared by sol-gel methods. The myristic acid was used as the phase change material for thermal energy storage, with the SiO2 acting as the supporting material. The structural analysis of these form-stable myristic acid /SiO2 composite phase change materials was carried out using Fourier transformation infrared spectroscope (FT-IR).The microstructure of the form-stable composite phase change materials was observed by a scanning electronic microscope (SEM). The thermal properties was investigated by a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC).The SEM results showed that the myristic acid was well dispersed in the porous network of SiO2. And the new nanocomposite material has favorable thermal storage capacity and can be applied to solar energy storage, industrial waste heat, recovery of waste heat and as civilian structural materials.