3D Printing of Phase Change Materials: Issues and Challenges

Latent heat storage offers most preferable technique for thermal energy storage because of invariable working temperature and high energy storage density. Latent heat storage systems use phase change materials (PCM) for energy storage. These systems suffer from low thermal conductivity of PCM which elongates charging and discharging time. A lot of research is being carried out to enhance the performance of PCM by using high thermal conductivity additives and porous media to enhance thermal conductivity, using cascaded or multistage latent heat technique to ameliorate heat transfer uniformity, using encapsulated PCM and finned structure to increase heat transfer surface. This paper reviews fabrication methods of PCM-based system using 3D printing technique. In addition, the research gaps in this field are also discussed and some recommendation for further research are also proposed.