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Morphological and Structural Evaluation of Hydration/Dehydration Stages of MgSO4 Filled Composite Silicone Foam for Thermal Energy Storage Applications

Authors :
Valeria Palomba
Angela Caprì
Andrea Frazzica
Elpida Piperopoulos
Edoardo Proverbio
Candida Milone
Luigi Calabrese
Luisa F. Cabeza
Paolo Bruzzaniti
Vincenza Brancato
Source :
Applied Sciences, Volume 10, Issue 2, Applied Sciences, Vol 10, Iss 2, p 453 (2020), Applied sciences 10 (2020). doi:10.3390/app10020453, info:cnr-pdr/source/autori:Piperopoulos, Elpida; Calabrese, Luigi; Bruzzaniti, Paolo; Brancato, Vincenza; Palomba, Valeria; Capri, Angela; Frazzica, Andrea; Cabeza, Luisa F.; Proverbio, Edoardo; Milone, Candida/titolo:Morphological and Structural Evaluation of Hydration%2FDehydration Stages of MgSO4 Filled Composite Silicone Foam for Thermal Energy Storage Applications/doi:10.3390%2Fapp10020453/rivista:Applied sciences/anno:2020/pagina_da:/pagina_a:/intervallo_pagine:/volume:10, Repositorio Abierto de la UdL, Universitad de Lleida, Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya, instname
Publication Year :
2020
Publisher :
MDPI AG, 2020.

Abstract

Salt hydrates, such as MgSO4·7H2O, are considered attractive materials for thermal energy storage, thanks to their high theoretical storage density. However, pure salt hydrates present some challenges in real application due to agglomeration, corrosion and swelling problems during hydration/dehydration cycles. In order to overcome these limitations, a composite material based on silicone vapor-permeable foam filled with the salt hydrate is here presented. For its characterization, a real-time in situ environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) investigation was carried out in controlled temperature and humidity conditions. The specific set-up was proposed as an innovative method in order to evaluate the morphological evolution of the composite material during the hydrating and dehydrating stages of the salt. The results evidenced an effective micro-thermal stability of the material. Furthermore, dehydration thermogravimetric/differential scanning calorimetric (TG/DSC) analysis confirmed the improved reactivity of the realized composite foam compared to pure MgSO4·7H2O. This work was partially funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades de España (RTI2018-093849-B-C31). This work was partially supported by ICREA under the ICREA Academia program.

Details

ISSN :
20763417
Volume :
10
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Applied Sciences
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....f918adc703677cc9ab6ac33047235edf