We fabricate a liquid-infused solar-absorbing foam charger that can rapidly advance the receding solid-liquid charging interface to efficiently store solar-thermal energy as latent heat and spontaneously float upward to cease the charging process upon overheating.
Solar-thermal energy storage (STES) within solid-liquid phase change materials (PCMs) has emerged as an attractive solution to overcome intermittency of renewable energy. However, current storage systems usually suffer from slow charging rates, sacrificed storage capacity, and overheating tendency.
To explore STES within large-volume PCMs, the rigid carbon foam and the flexible LPG foam with the same diameter of ~35 mm were used as the fixed and dynamic charger to charge solar-thermal energy within bulk PCMs including PW (50 g), SA (50 g), and ET (80 g) under a power density of ~0.2, ~0.25, and ~ 0.5 W/cm 2, respectively.
Latent heat solar-thermal energy storage (STES) offers a promising cost-effective solution to overcome intermittency of solar irradiation and provide stable heating supply owing to narrow heat storage/release temperature range, high energy density, and abundance of heat storage phase change materials (PCMs) (5 – 8).
When charging under concentrated solar illumination, the gravity-driven sinking of LPG foam enables ultrafast charging without safety concerns.
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