Exploring the colligative properties of Arachidic acid for potential use as PCM

摘要

The use of natural materials especially fatty acids as phase change materials (PCM) for different applications is considered as a current challenge for the scientific community. The main advantages of fatty acids are that they cover a wide range of melting temperatures and consume a good amount of latent heat while transiting from a state of aggregation to another. This work focuses on Arachidic acid, a fatty acid which presents some remarkable thermal properties that enable its use as PCM. Arachidic acid is mixed with different chemical salts in a cost-efficient manner, in order to alter its thermal characteristics. The main objective of the modifications is to maintain high latent heat, with a wider span of melting temperature and a smaller melting peak temperature to accommodate with the allowable electronic devices' temperatures. Specific properties such a s the heat capacity, the new latent heat (J/g), and peak temperature (degrees C) were determined in order to analyze the reliability and stability of fatty acids as PCM. The results showed that Arachidic acid mixed with 10 mol% sodium decanoate exhibited the highest melting point depreciation, from 75.2 degrees C to 71.9 degrees C, while maintaining a high latent heat of fusion (222 J/g).