Shape-stabilized phase change material with highly thermal conductive matrix developed by one-step pyrolysis method

Metal microspheres doping porous carbon (MMPC), which was prepared using in-situ pyrolysis reduction strategy, could enhance the thermal conductivity of shape-stabilized phase change material (ss-PCM) prepared by MMPC as the matrix. However, in previous studies that were reported, the preparation of MMPC needed to synthesize porous carbon by pyrolysis firstly, and then porous carbon adsorbed metal ions was pyrolyzed again to obtain MMPC, which was tedious and energy-prodigal. In this study, a one-step pyrolysis strategy was developed for the synthesis of MMPC through the pyrolyzation of wheat bran adsorbed copper ions, and the copper microspheres doping wheat bran biochar (CMS-WBB) was prepared. The CMS-WBB was taken as the supporter of stearic acid (SA) to synthesize the ss-PCM of SA/CMS-WBB. The study results about the thermal properties of SA/CMS-WBB demonstrated that the introduction of copper microspheres could not only improve the thermal conductivity of SA/CMS-WBB, but also could increase the SA loading amount of wheat bran biochar. More importantly, the CMS-WBB could be obtained by only one-step pyrolysis, which greatly simplified the preparation process and saved energy consumption. Furthermore, the raw material of wheat bran is a kind of agricultural waste, which is abundant, cheap and easy to obtain. Hence, the SA/CMS-WBB synthesized in this study had huge potentialities in thermal management applications, and a simplified method for improving the thermal properties of ss-PCMs was provided.