Encapsulation of polyethylene glycol in cellulose-based porous capsules for latent heat storage and light-to-thermal conversion

Abstract

Phase change materials are potential candidates for the application of latent heat storage. Herein, we fabricated porous capsules as shape-stable materials from cellulose-based polyelectrolyte complex, which were first prepared using cellulose 6-(N-pyridinium)hexanoyl ester as the cationic polyelectrolyte and carboxymethyl cellulose as the anionic polyelectrolyte to encapsulate polyethylene glycol by the vacuum impregnation method. Furthermore, the multi-walled carbon nanotube or graphene oxide, which were separately composited into the polyelectrolytes complex capsules to enhance thermal conductivity and light-to-thermal conversion efficiency. These capsules owned a typical core–shell structure, with an extremely high polyethylene glycol loading up to 34.33 g∙g^‒1. After loading of polyethylene glycol, the resulted cellulose-based composite phase change materials exhibited high thermal energy storage ability with the latent heat up to 142.2 J∙g^‒1, which was 98.5% of pure polyethylene glycol. Further results showed that the composite phase change materials demonstrated good form-stable property and thermal stability. Moreover, studies involving light-to-thermal conversion determined that composite phase change materials exhibited outstanding light-to-thermal conversion performance. Considering their exceptional comprehensive features, innovative composite phase change materials generated from cellulose presented a highly interesting choice for thermal management and renewable thermal energy storage.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

cellulose / polyelectrolytes / phase change materials / thermal energy storage / light-to-thermal conversion

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 31890774 and 31890770), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. 2572018AB40), and the National Training Program of Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Undergraduates of Northeast Forestry University (Grant No. 202110225432).

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11705-022-2279-3 and is accessible for authorized users.

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