Thermophysical characteristic of nano-TiO2 paraffin wax composite material
Author(s):
Maytham Tareq Mahdi†,‡* ,Ismail Hakki Kara‡
Affiliation(s):
Energy and Renewable Energies Technology Center, University of Technology-Iraq
‡ University of Karabük, Karabük, Turkey
Corresponding Author Email:
[email protected] , [email protected]
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
In modern applications, energy storage and transmission is considered important, and in particular for photovoltaic thermal (PV/T) applications. phase change materials is considered one of the important developments used in these applications because they possess superior thermophysical properties and thus have a high storage of energy capacity within the shape of latent heat. However, Low thermal conductivity is one of the most important problems facing the widespread use of these materials. In this work, Nano titanium oxide (TiO2) is added to the paraffin wax to evaluate the thermophysical changes occur in the wax. Therefore, the most appropriate materials to be used in (PV/T) applications can be determined. Five samples were prepared with the addition of Nano-titanium oxide with a percent mass ratio (0, 0.5, 1, 2, and 3). The results showed that adding any percentage of Nano Tio2 increases its viscosity and density. Since when 3% nano-TiO2 is added, the viscosity and density of the paraffin wax increases by 9.5%, 5.5%, respectively. The thermal conductivity is improved to 28.94%, 58.42%, 77.9%, and 91.57% for 0.5, 1, 2, 3% mass fraction, respectively. In addition, adding (Nano – TiO2) to paraffin wax reduces its thermal decomposition, which improves thermal stability.