Nanoconfinement of phase change materials within carbon aerogels: phase transition behaviours and photo-to-thermal energy storage

Abstract

We systematically investigated the thermal energy storage properties and host–guest interactions in a phase change composite based on octadecanol/carbon aerogels. Due to the nanoconfinement effect induced by the carbon aerogels, the loaded active materials show distinct phase transition behaviour to the free octadecanol, in which the solid-to-solid and solid-to-liquid phase change processes occurred at a lower temperature and the interval between these two processes became larger.