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Updated: Jan 9, 2026

Synthesis of Programmable Main-chain Liquid-crystalline Elastomers Using a Two-stage Thiol-acrylate Reaction
Published on: January 19, 2016
High latent heat and recyclable shape stable phase change materials with dynamic ester bonds for thermal management
Chunrui Zhai1, Yaofei Xu1, Dongliang Wang2
1Engineering Research Center of polymer Green Recycling of Ministry of Education, College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, 350007, People's Republic of China. luofubin@fjnu.edu.cn.
Abstract:
Organic phase-change materials (PCMs) are extensively utilized for thermal energy storage and thermal management. However, they often suffer from low thermal conductivity and a reduction in latent heat after shape stabilization. In this study, a novel shape-stabilized PCM (SSPCM) with high latent heat was synthesized via the carboxyl/epoxy reaction between carboxyl-functionalized polyethylene glycol (PEG-COOH), mono-carboxylic lauric acid (LA) and glycerol triglycidyl ether (GTE). The carboxyl/epoxy reaction results in a polymer network containing dynamic ester bonds, which impart excellent leak-proof performance and recyclability to the prepared SSPCM. The results show that the confined PEG and LA chains provide a high latent heat of 121.0 J g-1. Moreover, incorporating 30 wt% boron nitride (BN) increases the thermal conductivity of the SSPCM composite to 1.41 W m-1 K-1. Thermal-management experiments demonstrate that the resulting material can be efficiently employed as a thermal interface material.
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