Poly vinyl alcohol Fatty Acid Blends for Thermal Energy Storage

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This article is aimed to prepare the blends of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) with fatty acids (lauric, myristic, palmitic, and stearic acids) as shape-stabilized phase change material (PCM), to prove the miscibility of fatty acids with the PVA by microscopic investigation and infrared (IR) spectroscopy, and to measure their melting temperature and the latent heat of fusion by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis methods. In the blends, the fatty acids, which are dispersed in the solid network of the polymer, act as latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) material during its solid-liquid phase change when the polymer (PVA) has function of supporting material because of its structural strength. Therefore, the shape-stabilized fatty acids can keep the same shape in a solid shape without leakage of liquid fatty acids by aid of PVA in solid state. The maximum mixture ratio for all fatty acids in the shape-stabilized form was found as 50 wt%. By using DSC analysis method, the melting temperatures and latent heats of the shape-stabilized lauric, myristic, palmitic and stearic acids were determined as 39.8, 50.2, 56.2, and 67.4°C and 96.4, 105.3, 121.6, and 132.6 J/g, respectively. The results indicate that the PVA/fatty acids blends as shape-stabilized PCM have great potential for passive solar LHTES applications in terms of their satisfactory thermal properties and utility advantage of without encapsulation.