Form-Stabilized Polyethylene Glycol/Palygorskite Composite Phase Change Material: Thermal Energy Storage Properties, Cycling Stability, and Thermal Durability

In this work, polyethylene glycol (PEG) as a phase change material (PCM) was incorporated with palygorskite (Pal) clay to develop a novel form-stable composite PCM (F-SCPCM). The Pal/PEG(40 wt%) composite was defined as F-SCPCM and characterized using SEM/EDS, FT-IR, XRD, DSC, and TGA techniques. The DSC results revealed that the F-SCPCM has a melting temperature of 32.5°C and latent heat capacity of 64.3 J/g for thermal energy storage (TES) applications. Thermal cycling test showed that the F-SCPCM had good cycling thermal/chemical stability after 500 cycles. The TGA data proved that that both cycled and non-cycled F-SCPCMs had considerable high thermal durability. Consequently, the created F-SCPCM could be considered as an additive material for production of green construction components with TES capability. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 60:909–916, 2020.