Facile Ester-based Phase Change Materials Synthesis for Enhanced Energy Storage Toward Battery Thermal Management

With the increasing demand for thermal management, phase change materials (PCMs) have garnered widespread attention due to their unique advantages in energy storage and temperature regulation. However, traditional PCMs present challenges in modification, with commonly used physical methods facing stability and compatibility issues. This study introduces a simple and effective chemical method by synthesizing seven ester-based PCMs through chemical reactions involving lauric acid (LA) and seven different alcohols. These materials notably broaden the phase change temperature range, exhibiting melting temperature from -8.99 to 46.60 °C, expanding by 203.18% compared to raw alcohol materials. In addition, these samples exhibit excellent thermal stability and high latent heat, with a maximum latent heat value of 182.98 J g. In subsequent application studies, this material demonstrates outstanding energy storage characteristics and proposed an innovative thermal management method for batteries based on the PCM immersion technique, allowing the battery to maintain a temperature below 60 °C for 20.5 h, while the blank group rapidly reached 60 °C within 0.82 h and increased to 75 °C within 2.35 h. This approach greatly improves temperature regulation, enhances battery safety, and boosts operational efficiency, highlighting the immense potential of the material in advanced energy storage applications.