Size effects of nano-rutile TiO2 on latent heat recovered of binary eutectic hydrate salt phase change material

Abstract In the current work, we reported the size effects of rutile TiO2 nanoparticles on the latent heat recovered of eutectic hydrate salt (EHS) phase change material (PCM). The nanoparticles modified EHS composites were prepared with different volume loadings (0.1 %, 0.3 % and 0.5 %) of TiO2 nanoparticles with two different sizes of 25 and 100 nm. The rheological behaviour analysis was carried out to demonstrate the dispersion stability of TiO2 nanoparticles in EHS. The factorial experiment method has been developed to evaluate the size effects of TiO2 nanoparticles. Meanwhile, the characterization technique, DSC was used to investigate the thermal properties. The results showed that the nanoparticles modified EHS composites incorporated with TiO2 nanoparticles in diameter of 25 nm achieved an optimal latent heat recovered, of which the mechanism analyses were validated by SEM and FT-IR. This study will provide insights into the further improvement of thermal properties of nanoparticles modified PCM composites by means of tailoring the size of nanoparticles.