IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v8y2017i1d10.1038_s41467-017-01618-w.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Dynamic tuning of optical absorbers for accelerated solar-thermal energy storage

Author

Listed:
  • Zhongyong Wang

    (Shanghai Jiao Tong University)

  • Zhen Tong

    (University of Michigan–Shanghai Jiao Tong University Joint Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University)

  • Qinxian Ye

    (Shanghai Jiao Tong University)

  • Hang Hu

    (Shanghai Jiao Tong University)

  • Xiao Nie

    (Shanghai Jiao Tong University)

  • Chen Yan

    (University of Michigan–Shanghai Jiao Tong University Joint Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University)

  • Wen Shang

    (Shanghai Jiao Tong University)

  • Chengyi Song

    (Shanghai Jiao Tong University)

  • Jianbo Wu

    (Shanghai Jiao Tong University)

  • Jun Wang

    (A123 Systems Research Center, A123 Systems, LLC)

  • Hua Bao

    (University of Michigan–Shanghai Jiao Tong University Joint Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University)

  • Peng Tao

    (Shanghai Jiao Tong University)

  • Tao Deng

    (Shanghai Jiao Tong University)

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhongyong Wang & Zhen Tong & Qinxian Ye & Hang Hu & Xiao Nie & Chen Yan & Wen Shang & Chengyi Song & Jianbo Wu & Jun Wang & Hua Bao & Peng Tao & Tao Deng, 2017. "Dynamic tuning of optical absorbers for accelerated solar-thermal energy storage," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 8(1), pages 1-9, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-017-01618-w
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-01618-w
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-01618-w
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-017-01618-w?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhang, Yuang & Wang, Jiasheng & Qiu, Jinjing & Jin, Xin & Umair, Malik Muhammad & Lu, Rongwen & Zhang, Shufen & Tang, Bingtao, 2019. "Ag-graphene/PEG composite phase change materials for enhancing solar-thermal energy conversion and storage capacity," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 237(C), pages 83-90.
    2. Liu, Huan & Tian, Xinxin & Ouyang, Mize & Wang, Xiang & Wu, Dezhen & Wang, Xiaodong, 2021. "Microencapsulating n-docosane phase change material into CaCO3/Fe3O4 composites for high-efficient utilization of solar photothermal energy," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 47-64.
    3. Du, Xiaosheng & Qiu, Jinghong & Deng, Sha & Du, Zongliang & Cheng, Xu & Wang, Haibo, 2021. "Flame-retardant and solid-solid phase change composites based on dopamine-decorated BP nanosheets/Polyurethane for efficient solar-to-thermal energy storage," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 1-10.
    4. Yao, Haichen & Liu, Xianglei & Luo, Qingyang & Xu, Qiao & Tian, Yang & Ren, Tianze & Zheng, Hangbin & Gao, Ke & Dang, Chunzhuo & Xuan, Yimin & Liu, Zhan & Yang, Xiaohu & Ding, Yulong, 2022. "Experimental and numerical investigations of solar charging performances of 3D porous skeleton based latent heat storage devices," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 320(C).
    5. Yongyu Lu & Dehai Yu & Haoxuan Dong & Jinran Lv & Lichen Wang & He Zhou & Zhen Li & Jing Liu & Zhizhu He, 2022. "Magnetically tightened form-stable phase change materials with modular assembly and geometric conformality features," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, December.
    6. Ma, Xuke & Yang, Chunyan & Feng, Xuejiao & Shang, Huishan & Zhao, Yafei & Zhang, Bing, 2023. "Halloysite-based aerogels for efficient encapsulation of phase change materials with excellent solar energy storage and retrieval performance," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 341(C).
    7. Liu, Lu & Fan, Xiaoqiao & Zhang, Yuang & Zhang, Shufen & Wang, Wentao & Jin, Xin & Tang, Bingtao, 2020. "Novel bio-based phase change materials with high enthalpy for thermal energy storage," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 268(C).
    8. Gao, Yuan & Zheng, Qiye & Jonsson, Jacob C. & Lubner, Sean & Curcija, Charlie & Fernandes, Luis & Kaur, Sumanjeet & Kohler, Christian, 2021. "Parametric study of solid-solid translucent phase change materials in building windows," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 301(C).
    9. Yafang Zhang & Jiebin Tang & Jialin Chen & Yuhai Zhang & Xiangxiang Chen & Meng Ding & Weijia Zhou & Xijin Xu & Hong Liu & Guobin Xue, 2023. "Accelerating the solar-thermal energy storage via inner-light supplying with optical waveguide," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    10. Lu, Shilei & Lin, Quanyi & Xu, Bowen & Yue, Lu & Feng, Wei, 2023. "Thermodynamic performance of cascaded latent heat storage systems for building heating," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 282(C).
    11. Shi, Lei & Hu, Yanwei & Bai, Yijie & He, Yurong, 2020. "Dynamic tuning of magnetic phase change composites for solar-thermal conversion and energy storage," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 263(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-017-01618-w. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.