Morphological characterization and applications of phase change materials in thermal energy storage: A review

Phase change material (PCM), stores and releases heat at a particular required temperature as it undergoes phase change at that temperature. Because of their large latent heat and constant temperature during the phase change process, the PCMs are extensively used in latent thermal energy storage system (LTES) and thermal management system (TM). Due to its virtue of competitive performance, PCM has been used extensively in heat recovery, solar energy, aerospace industry, buildings, textile industry etc. However, the PCM has limitations like low thermal conductivity and low heat transfer rate, which decrease the performance of LTES and TM systems. In this work, ways of improving thermal conductivity and heat transfer rate of the composite PCMs (CPCMs) are summarized from perspective of three kinds of CPCMs' morphologies (fiber, porosity and sphere). This review paper presents morphological characterization of the CPCMs, and several fabrication methods of the CPCMs with enhanced thermal properties.