Development of a novel alkali-activated slag-based composite containing paraffin/ceramsite shape stabilized phase change material for thermal energy storage.

• Shape-stabilized phase change material (SSPCM) was prepared with paraffin and ceramsite. • A novel alkali-activated slag-based thermal energy storage composite (ASTESC) was developed. • The thermo-physical properties of SSPCM and ASTESC were determined and analyzed. • Based on experimental test data, the thermo-mechanical properties of ASTESC are mathematically modeled. • The microstructure of ASTESC were investigated. In this paper, a novel alkali-activated slag-based thermal energy storage composite (ASTESC) was developed, which uses alkali-activated slag cementitious material as matrix to incorporate paraffin/ceramsite shape-stabilized phase change material (SSPCM)prepared by vacuum impregnation method. A series of tests were conducted to investigate the thermo-physical properties of SSPCM and ASTESC. The results indicated that the paraffin mass fraction of SSPCM can reach as high as 55.93%, and the peak phase change temperature and latent heat value of SSPCM is 29.0 °C and 56.13 J/g respectively. Compared with the ASTESC without SSPCM, after incorporating SSPCM, its thermal conductivity decreased by 25.17% to the maximum extent, and there was a significant linear relationship between the thermal conductivity of ASTESC and the mass fraction of SSPCM. Infrared thermal image analysis results show that ASTESC combined with SSPCM has good heat storage performance and temperature regulation ability. The mechanical strength test shows that ASTESC has excellent mechanical properties. Although the increase of SSPCM content will reduce the compressive strength of ASTESC, the results show that even when the mass fraction of SSPCM is as high as 60%, the 28-day compressive strength of ASTESC can still reach 47.3 MPa, which can meet the compressive strength requirements of general structural applications. From the investigation, it can be inferred that the ASTESC developed by this work is a promising thermal energy storage composite with structural and functional integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]