Development of lauryl alcohol-impregnated cenosphere for thermal energy storage and thermal comfort enhancement in cement composites for sustainable building envelopes

The construction and application of PCMs have been extensively investigated in cement-based ceramics, but weaknesses like leakage, instability, and low strength still exist. Conventional porous careers are of very limited improvement. This work results in a new shape-stabilized PCM structure to be developed with lauryl alcohol (LOH)-impregnated cenospheres (CS/LOH), the latter system is a design using CS/LOH. The very high LOH load enhances the latent heat holding and leakage resistance, enabling effective passive thermal management in cement composites. The CS/LOH composite was prepared through vacuum-assisted impregnation, with LOH loading to maximize up to 35 wt%, and good shape stability and thermal resistance were confirmed by FTIR, SEM-EDS, TGA and DSC analyses. The inclusion of CS/LOH in cement composites led to a 36 % reduction in dry unit weight, and a 48 % reduction in thermal conductivity. Outdoor full-scale testing showed the PCM-modified specimens effectively dampened the temperature fluctuations. The PCM-enhanced cabin prevented such heat build-up and maintained the cabin temperature up to −1.3 °C lower than outside. Cooling phases showed the cabin's temperature constantly 1.5 °C higher indoors than outdoors, indicating effective delay in overheating and improvement of indoor comfort. The surface temperature varied from + 2.6 °C to −3.5 °C. Indeed, the whole LOH-impregnated CS is an effective, lightweight material that enhances significantly energy savings and thermal comfort within building envelope.