Mass screening for nucleation agents for sodium acetate trihydrate and their relevance for heat batteries Jinjie Li and Christoph Salzmann University College London, UK As environmental problems such as global warming become more and more serious, heat batteries are gaining increasing popularity for their capability to store and release heat directly, and their ability to be combined with solar and wind power sources. 1 Phase change materials absorb and release heat during melting and crystallization, and are now widely used to make heat batteries. Sodium acetate trihydrate is actively investigated because of its excellent latent heat and crystallization temperature of 58°C. 2 However, supercooling effects are serious drawbacks which means that nucleating agents are needed to induce crystallisation. 3 We built a new instrument, the HeatMaster, to study phase change materials for heat battery applications. The HeatMaster can simulate heating/cooling operating cycles and can investigate up to six phase change materials at the same time. Using power compensation, melting and crystallisation processes can be detected in real time. Overall, 30 different nucleating agents were investigated. A new reliable nucleating agent with minimal supercooling was discovered which may lead to the development of more efficient heat batteries in the future. References 1. K. Matuszek, M. Kar, J. M. Pringle and D. R. MacFarlane, Chem. Rev. , 2023, 123 , 491-514. 2. H. Wang, Y. Hu, F. Jiang and X. Ling, Energy (Oxford) , 2022, 261 , 125232. 3. D. E. Oliver, A. J. Bissell, X. Liu, C. C. Tang and C. R. Pulham, CrystEngComm , 2021, 23 , 7-76.
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