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The miracle of building warmth and cold: How phase change materials cool houses in the hot summer?
In the hot summer, the cooling demand of houses often triggers people's deep thoughts on energy consumption and environmental impacts.Phase change materials (PCM) have gradually become the key to solving this problem due to their unique thermal properties.
Phase change material is a substance that can release or absorb a large amount of energy during the phase change process, so it has excellent cooling capacity.
The working principle of phase change materials is to store and release energy through the transition between the solid and liquid states of the material.When the temperature soars, these materials absorb heat and turn it into liquid state, thereby reducing the temperature of the surrounding environment; when the ambient temperature drops, they release the stored heat and return to the solid state.In such a process, phase change materials can absorb and release heat much higher than general heat-sensitive storage, making their application in building cooling systems particularly important.
At present, phase change materials are mainly divided into two categories: organic materials (such as carbon-based materials from petroleum or plant origin) and inorganic saline hydrates.The choice of these materials depends on their melting point, latent heat of melting and cost.
For example, water and ice are extremely effective phase change materials because they store cold energy in the summer and release them when temperatures change.
Organic phase change materials generally have lower thermal conductivity, which makes them require higher thermal conductivity during cooling.Relatively speaking, inorganic materials such as brine hydrates perform better in volume thermal storage capacity and thermal conductivity.The development and application of these materials have witnessed the evolution of multiple generations and have an increasingly important position in various commercial applications.
As the cost of renewable electricity continues to decrease, the potential of phase change materials in building cooling is increasingly valued.In those hot summer areas, such as North America, Australia and Southern Europe, there is a peak supply mismatch between public electricity demand and solar energy production, which makes an effective thermal storage strategy necessary.Phase change materials provide an effective solution that can store excess heat during the day and release it during peak demand.
The application of phase change materials is not limited to the construction field, but many industries such as medical, food transportation, and electronic cooling are also adopting this technology in large quantities.Especially in the emerging "ice storage" cooling technology, such materials have been widely used in commercial refrigeration systems.
By reducing reliance on traditional cooling equipment, phase change materials are designed to reduce energy consumption while improving cooling efficiency.
However, phase change materials also face some challenges in their application.In high temperature or high pressure environments, the properties of certain materials may change, resulting in degradation of performance, which requires special caution when using them.In addition, preventing phase change separation or uneven melting of phase change materials during repeated recycling is also an important issue in the current technological development.
With the advancement of technology, the packaging and integration technology of phase change materials is also constantly evolving.Micropackaging technology allows phase change materials to be combined with building materials, thereby effectively storing heat energy inside the structure. This innovation makes the application of phase change materials more flexible and diverse.In the future, with the development of more efficient phase change materials and their applicability in smart buildings, it may be more widely involved in architectural design and transformation.
On the road to sustainable development, the emergence and application of phase change materials is undoubtedly an ideal choice to fight climate change and energy tension.As our technology matures, how to fully integrate these smart materials into future architectural design to achieve a truly energy-efficient and comfortable living environment will be a topic worth pondering?
