Thermally-induced flexible composite phase change material with enhanced thermal conductivity

Phase change energy storage materials are promising for addressing issues such as energy distribution imbalance and mismatched supply and demand. However, practical application of phase change materials (PCMs) is hindered by challenges like crystalline rigidity, leakage, and poor thermal conductivity. This study introduces a novel form-stable composite phase change material (CPCM) with high thermal conductivity and flexibility, prepared through solution blending. The CPCM exhibits not only a high phase change enthalpy but also shape stability and thermal stability. By uniformly dispersing lauric acid (LA) -modified carbon nanotubes-COOH (CNTs-COOH) in the CPCM, its thermal conductivity is significantly improved. Even with just 1% CNTsCOOH, the thermal conductivity of the CPCM is 2.4 times that of the original. Moreover, the composite material demonstrates excellent thermal management performance for high-temperature lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries. These findings open up new possibilities for developing environmentally friendly and highly thermally conductive flexible CPCM materials.