Pressure-Induced Assembly of Organic Phase-Change Materials Hybridized with Expanded Graphite and Carbon Nanotubes for Direct Solar Thermal Harvesting and Thermoelectric Conversion.

Direct harvesting of abundant solar thermal energy within organic phase-change materials (PCMs) has emerged as a promising way to overcome the intermittency of renewable solar energy and pursue high-efficiency heating-related applications. Organic PCMs, however, generally suffer from several common shortcomings including melting-induced leakage, poor solar absorption, and low thermal conductivity. Compounding organic PCMs with single-component carbon materials faces the difficulty in achieving optimized comprehensive performance enhancement.

Fish-inspired dynamic charging for ultrafast self-protective solar-thermal energy storage.

Solar-thermal energy storage (STES) within solid-liquid phase change materials (PCMs) has emerged as an attractive solution to overcome intermittency of renewable energy. However, current storage systems usually suffer from slow charging rates, sacrificed storage capacity, and overheating tendency. Inspired by the thermoregulation behavior of fish, here, we present a quick-responsive, ultrafast, large-capacity, overheating-protective STES strategy.

Carbon-Enhanced Hydrated Salt Phase Change Materials for Thermal Management Applications.

Inorganic hydrated salt phase change materials (PCMs) hold promise for improving the energy conversion efficiency of thermal systems and facilitating the exploration of renewable thermal energy. Hydrated salts, however, often suffer from low thermal conductivity, supercooling, phase separation, leakage and poor solar absorptance. In recent years, compounding hydrated salts with functional carbon materials has emerged as a promising way to overcome these shortcomings and meet the application demands.