Yu-Shiue Chena, Yeng-Fong Shiha*, and Yi-Hsiuan Yub

aDepartment of Chemistry, Chaoyang University of Technology, 168, Jifong E. Rd.,
Wufong District, Taichung, Taiwan
bChemical Systems Research Division, Chung Shan Institute of Science and Technology, Lung-Tan, Taoyuan, Taiwan

 

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ABSTRACT

As a phase change material (PCM), paraffin has high latent heat, but low thermal conductivity. In this study, expanded graphite (EG) was added into paraffin to form composite material with both high thermal conductivity, and high latent heat. Moreover, the EG was organo-modified to improve the compatibility of EG and paraffin. The results reveal that thermal conductivity of paraffin (0.30 W/mK) was increased to 8.377 W/mK by adding 30% mass fraction of modified EG. The results also indicated that the heating and cooling times of modified EG/paraffin composites were increased significantly with respect to that of pure paraffin. The experimental results revealed that the use of modified EG can be considered an effective method to improve the thermal conductivity of paraffin.


Keywords: Paraffin; expanded graphite; thermal conductivity.


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REFERENCES

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ARTICLE INFORMATION

Received: 2012-10-17
Revised: 2013-04-01
Accepted: 2013-04-09
Available Online: 2013-06-01


Cite this article:

Chen, Y.S., Shih, Y.F., Yu, Y.H. 2013. Stearyl alcohol modified expanded graphite / paraffin phase change composite. International Journal of Applied Science and Engineering, 11, 227–233. https://doi.org/10.6703/IJASE.2013.11(2).227

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