Size effects of nano-rutile TiO₂ on latent heat recovered of binary eutectic hydrate salt phase change material

In the current work, we reported the size effects of rutile TiO₂ nanoparticles on the latent heat recovered of eutectic hydrate salt (EHS) phase change material (PCM). The nanoparticles modified EHS composites were prepared with different volume loadings (0.1 %, 0.3 % and 0.5 %) of TiO₂ nanoparticles with two different sizes of 25 and 100 nm. The rheological behaviour analysis was carried out to demonstrate the dispersion stability of TiO₂ nanoparticles in EHS. The factorial experiment method has been developed to evaluate the size effects of TiO₂ nanoparticles. Meanwhile, the characterization technique, DSC was used to investigate the thermal properties. The results showed that the nanoparticles modified EHS composites incorporated with TiO₂ nanoparticles in diameter of 25 nm achieved an optimal latent heat recovered, of which the mechanism analyses were validated by SEM and FT-IR. This study will provide insights into the further improvement of thermal properties of nanoparticles modified PCM composites by means of tailoring the size of nanoparticles.