Thermal enhancement of paraffin as a phase change material with nanomagnetite

Paraffin is a common phase-change-material (PCM) exploited in many thermal and solar energy storage applications. Its relatively large latent heat with a stable phase change, nontoxicity and noncorrosivity are the main reasons. Paraffin's low thermal conductivity may become a drawback for high power applications. In this study, the effect of adding nanomaterials to enhance paraffin's thermal performance is investigated. Nanomagnetite (Fe3O4) particles were prepared by sol-gel method for this investigation. Once characterization of nanomagnetite was done, it was added at 1%, 5%, 10%, and 15% ratios to paraffin (melting range: 46-48 degrees C) to obtain a paraffin nanocomposite. Thermal characterization with Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC) shows that the latent heat storage capacity of paraffin has been increased for 10% nanomagnetite composite, while the melting temperature range remained the same. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.