Construction and design of paraffin/PVDF hollow fiber linear phase change energy storage materials

Based on the accidental discovery, a linear phase change energy storage material (PCESM) could be designed by encapsulating phase change materials with hollow fiber membrane (HFM). Using HFM as a carrier for PCESM served two outstanding benefits. Firstly, both the hollow portion and the membrane wall of the HFM can be utilized to encapsulate the phase change material, which is more advantageous than the other carrier materials. Secondly, as the HFM is a flexible fibrous polymer carrier, a flexible woven PCESM can be prepared, and hence, the characteristics that can be woven into a net expand the application range of this kind of PCESM. There are limited reports on Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) HFM as carriers for PCESM. In this work, PVDF HFM prepared via two different methods were employed as carriers to encapsulate paraffin. Hence, two different PCESM were prepared and the two materials were compared and characterized. The significance of this work is in enriching the carrier selection process for PCES...