Advanced Materials and Additive Manufacturing for Phase Change Thermal Energy Storage and Management: A Review

摘要

Phase change materials (PCMs) can enhance the performance of energysystems by time shifting or reducing peak thermal loads. The effectiveness ofa PCM is defined by its energy and power density—the total available storagecapacity (kWh m~（?3）) and how fast it can be accessed (kW m~（?3）). These areinfluenced by both material properties as well as geometry of the energysystems; however, prior efforts have primarily focused on improving materialproperties, namely, maximizing latent heat of fusion and increasing thermalconductivity. The latter is often at the expense of the former. Advancedmanufacturing techniques hold tremendous potential to enableco-optimization of material properties and device geometry, while potentiallyreducing material waste and manufacturing time. There is an emerging bodyof research focused on additive manufacturing of PCM composites anddevices for thermal energy storage (TES) and thermal management. In thisarticle, the fundamentals and applications of PCMs are reviewed and recentadditive manufacturing advances in latent heat TES for both the PCMcomposite and associated heat exchanger are discussed. A forward-lookingperspective on the future and potential of PCM additive manufacturing forTES and thermal management is provided.