Thermophysical characteristics of tricosane-hexatriacontane blends for phase change material applications

Phase change materials are crucial for many applications in thermal energy storage and the development of self-adaptive micro actuators. Organic phase change materials, particularly n-alkanes, have been successfully used for these purposes. Key challenges include expanding the range of applications by accessing additional phase transformation zones and their associated phase change energies. Blends of n-alkanes offer a way to tailor thermophysical properties. In this study, the thermophysical properties of the n-alkanes tricosane (C23) and hexatriacontane (C36), as well as their binary mixtures, are investigated over the temperature range of 30 to 80 °C. We observed a melting-point depression of up to 18 K for hexatriacontane and a non-linear change in heat of fusion by up to 6 % over the composition. In particular, the change in melting point of these n-alkane mixtures shows potential to tailor the temperature window of this PCM. This work provides new thermophysical property data on these alkanes and addresses thermal rate effects and mixture data, creating a database to support the future development of latent heat storage systems or micro actuators based on tricosane and hexatriacontane blends.