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.

Details

Title
Dynamic tuning of optical absorbers for accelerated solar-thermal energy storage
Author
Wang, Zhongyong 1 ; Tong, Zhen 2 ; Ye, Qinxian 1 ; Hu, Hang 1 ; Nie, Xiao 1 ; Chen, Yan 2 ; Shang, Wen 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Song, Chengyi 1 ; Wu, Jianbo 1 ; Wang, Jun 3 ; Bao, Hua 2 ; Peng, Tao 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Deng, Tao 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo 

1  State Key Laboratory of Metal Matrix Composites, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China 
2  University of Michigan–Shanghai Jiao Tong University Joint Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China 
3  A123 Systems Research Center, A123 Systems, LLC, Waltham, MA, USA 
Pages
1-9
Publication year
2017
Publication date
Nov 2017
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20411723
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-01618-w
ProQuest document ID
1963432664
Copyright
© 2017. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.