Experimental study on thermophysical properties of nanofluids as phase-change material (PCM) in low temperature cool storage

In this article, a new sort of nanofluid phase change materials (PCMs) is developed by suspending a small amount of TiO2 nanoparticles in saturated BaCl2 aqueous solution. Its thermal conductivities, supercooling degree, latent heat, specific heat, and rheological behaviors of the nanofluids PCMs were investigated. The experimental results show that with volume fraction is 1.130%, the thermal conductivities of nanofluids PCMs is enhanced by 12.76% at −5 °C, the supercooling degree is reduced by 84.92%. The latent heat and specific heat are slightly decreased with suspending nanoparticles. The viscosity increased with the increasing volume fraction, which will have no effect on the cool storage system. The higher thermal performances of nanofluids PCMs indicate that they are suitable for the industries low temperature energy storage.

► The nanoparticles can reduce the supercooling degree of TiO2–BaCl2–H2O nanofluid PCMs.
► The TiO2–BaCl2–H2O nanofluids PCMs can be applied to industries low temperature energy storage.
► TiO2–BaCl2–H2O can be a candidate for low temperature PCM.