DOI: https://doi.org/10.55373/mjchem.v25i3.202

Keywords: Waste heat; PCM; leakage; thermal cyclic analysis; NBR latex

Abstract

Waste heat energy from industrial operations can be recovered using phase change material (PCM) due to its ability to store thermal energy at phase transition temperature. However, disadvantage such as leakage of PCM that causes corrosion of industrial equipment hinders the potential of PCM being used in large-scale. In this study, form-stable PCM was developed using polyamide/reduced graphene oxide(rGO) that was pelletised and coated with nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR) latex via dip coating method. Thermal cyclic analysis showed that the leakage of PCM has reduced as the sulphur loading in NBR latex increased. PCMs with two layers of NBR coating have lower weight loss compared to those with 1 layer of NBR coating especially at a higher sulphur loading. The Ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and E-modulus of the NBR films increased with sulphur loading due to an increase in crosslink density as indicated by gel fraction studies. The percentage of elongation at break (EB%) decreased as the crosslink density increased, due to restricted mobility of NBR chains. The increase in crosslink density has resulted in increase in gel fraction and density of the NBR films which then leads to formation of compact and continuous NBR coating film on PCM surface as evidenced from microscopy images and functional group analysis.