Paraffin/water nanoemulsions with reduced supercooling for thermal management systems

Phase change material nanoemulsions were synthesised and characterised to be used as possible storage and heat transfers fluids in low temperature thermal management. Thermal energy storage densities of different paraffin / water nanoemulsions were studied, and RT44HC was selected as the optimized PCM. Seven different nucleating agents, including paraffin waxes with higher melting point, nanoparticles and other organic materials, have been experimentally tested. It was found that 5% paraffin nanoemulsions with 1-octadecanol as nucleating agent (weight fraction 1:10 with respect to PCM), reduced supercooling up to 32 % over samples without nucleating agent, while maintaining the thermal properties of the sample under thermal cycling. Good stability (for both high temperatures and thermal cycling) of the nanoemulsions were observed, while an increase in the viscosity was measured.