A series of new solid-solid phase change materials (PCMs) have been synthesized via radical and RAFT polymerization to evaluate the effect of the pendant chain chemical structure on latent heat. Flexible, non-crystallizable spacers were added between the polymer backbone and the crystallizing olefin. The structure of the spacers was modified to evaluate the effect of chain length and hydrogen bonding ability on phase change behavior. The spacer increased the conformational freedom of the olefin chains and produced polymethacrylates and polyacrylamides with latent heats higher or comparable to those of commercially available encapsulated PCMs. Our results indicate that a 4-6 atom spacer maximized the heat storage capacity. Furthermore, introduction of hydrogen bonding motifs increased the latent heats of the polymers by up to 50% without significantly altering their melting temperature. We expect that these trends can be used to guide the design of more efficient solid-solid PCMs for a wide range of applications.

Olefin-bearing polymethacrylates and polymethacrylamides as solid-solid phase change materials: Effect of spacer length on heat storage capacity

248th National Meeting (2014)

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