In:
Nature Communications, Springer Science and Business Media LLC, Vol. 8, No. 1 ( 2017-11-14)
Abstract:
Currently, solar-thermal energy storage within phase-change materials relies on adding high thermal-conductivity fillers to improve the thermal-diffusion-based charging rate, which often leads to limited enhancement of charging speed and sacrificed energy storage capacity. Here we report the exploration of a magnetically enhanced photon-transport-based charging approach, which enables the dynamic tuning of the distribution of optical absorbers dispersed within phase-change materials, to simultaneously achieve fast charging rates, large phase-change enthalpy, and high solar-thermal energy conversion efficiency. Compared with conventional thermal charging, the optical charging strategy improves the charging rate by more than 270% and triples the amount of overall stored thermal energy. This superior performance results from the distinct step-by-step photon-transport charging mechanism and the increased latent heat storage through magnetic manipulation of the dynamic distribution of optical absorbers.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
2041-1723
DOI:
10.1038/s41467-017-01618-w
Language:
English
Publisher:
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Publication Date:
2017
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2553671-0
Permalink