Preliminary Functionality Assessment on Supercooling Suppression of Binary Polyol Mixture as Energy Material for Thermal System

Abstract

The functionality of the material has valuable aspect for energy utilization, specifically for optimization and renewable technology. Modification from the base material mostly performed to overcome some drawbacks to achieve the technical function, particularly for storing energy material (SEM). This work studies the modification of SEM-TS (thermal system) using polyols (sorbitol/SR and mannitol/MN) as the base SEM. Modification is performed to minimize the supercooling effect for the both polyols, and processed without causing fundamental changes on the structure and chemical composition. The mixture was produced at ratio 25 wt%, 50 wt% and 75 wt% (relative to SR), where the evaluation demonstrated various performance changes. The chemical identification shows the mixture has identic profile with the base, showing no chemical transformation. The diffraction from XRD is also similar for SR and MN, which also confirmed by the thermogravimetric curve which has identic decomposition pattern between the mixture and base material. Key improvement is achieved where the mixture indicates lower supercooling degree (5.1 – 10.8 °C). Also, each mixture indicate solidification transition occurs at longer range, showing the ability to recrystallize during discharge operation. Energy input/output evaluation demonstrate significant change related to temperature increment for heating cycle, giving a clearer indication on the change of melting mechanism of the mixture. It also observed for the heat discharge, showing the mixture has ability to releasing the stored heat in a better manner compared to SR. In general, functionality of the mixture as SEM-TS is more favorable than the base material, potentially unlocking the application of polyol-based SEM-TS in thermal system.

Recommended Citation

Kuswana, Kuswana; Firman, La Ode Mohammad; Putra, Robertus Dhimas Dhewangga; and Rahman, Reza Abdu (2025) "Preliminary Functionality Assessment on Supercooling Suppression of Binary Polyol Mixture as Energy Material for Thermal System," Eurasian Journal of Physics and Functional Materials: Vol. 9: No. 2, Article 1.