Thermal rectification in multilayer phase change material structures for energy storage applications

Swoboda, Timm (author), Klinar, Katja (author), Abbasi, Shahzaib (author), Brem, Gerrit (author), Kitanovski, Andrej (author), Muñoz Rojo, Miguel (author)

Solid-state thermal control devices that present an asymmetric heat flow depend-ing on thermal bias directionality, referred to as thermal diodes, have recentlyreceived increased attention for energy management. The use of materials thatcan change phase is a common approach to design thermal diodes, but typicalsizes, moderate rectification ratios, and narrow thermal tunability limit their po-tential applications. In this work, we propose a multilayer thermal diode made ofa combination of phase change and invariant materials. This device presentsstate-of-the-art thermal rectification ratios up to 136% for a temperature rangebetween 300 K and 500 K. Importantly, this design allows to switch betweendistinct rectification states that can be modulated with temperature, achievingan additional degree of thermal control compared with single-rectification-statedevices. We analyze the relevance of our thermal diodes for retaining heat moreefficiently in thermal storage elements.

• Language: English
• Keywords: energy engineering, materials science, energy materials, thermal control device, thermal diode, heat storage
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FS - Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2021
• Number of pages: Str. 1-14
• Numbering: Vol. 24, iss. 8, art. 102843
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-128882
• UDC: 536:620.1/.2
• ISSN on article: 2589-0042
• DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2021.102843
• COBISS.SI-ID: 72781059
• Publication date in RUL: 11.08.2021

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: iScience
• Publisher: Cell Press, Elsevier
• ISSN: 2589-0042
• COBISS.SI-ID: 24098568

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.
• Licensing start date: 09.07.2021

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: gospodarjenje z energijo, znanost o materialih, energijski materiali, toplotni kontrolni element, toplotna dioda, toplotni regulator, shranjevanje toplote