Phase Diagrams and Thermal Properties of Fatty Acid Ternary Eutectic Mixtures for Latent Heat Thermal Energy

This study utilized capric acid (CA), lauric acid (LA), myristic acid (MA), palmitic acid (PA), and stearic acid (SA) as alternative feedstocks to conduct theoretical analyses on ten fatty acid-based ternary eutectic systems. By leveraging the Schrader equation, phase diagrams for each system were constructed, and their theoretical eutectic points were calculated. The CA-LA-MA (capric acid-lauric acid-myristic acid) ternary system was selected as a representative for experimental fabrication: differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was employed to characterize its thermal properties, while Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were used to assess its functional group composition and thermal stability, respectively. Theoretical calculations indicate that the ten ternary eutectic systems exhibit melting temperatures ranging from 17.11 °C to 37.61 °C, with phase change latent heats spanning 167.8 J·g^-1 to 189.6 J·g^-1. For the CA-LA-MA system, experimental DSC results confirm that its eutectic melting temperature is 16.0 °C (accompanied by a phase change latent heat of 177.0 J·g^-1, with minor deviations from theoretical predictions attributed to reagent impurities and operational errors). TGA characterization further reveals that the CA-LA-MA mixture has an initial weight loss temperature (corresponding to ~1% mass loss) of 115.6 °C and an extrapolated onset weight loss temperature of 164.8 °C, confirming reliable thermal stability below 100 °C-consistent with its low-temperature application design. These results validate the consistency between theoretical predictions and experimental data, and demonstrate that fatty acid-based ternary eutectic mixtures are promising candidates for low-temperature thermal energy storage applications.