Thermal Energy Storage, Heat Transfer Enhancement, and Solar Thermal Systems
This community develops materials and systems for storing thermal energy, enhancing heat transfer, and harvesting solar heat, primarily for renewable energy applications and electronic thermal management.
The work centers on phase change materials (PCMs) for latent heat storage, often encapsulated or combined with high-conductivity fillers like boron nitride, graphene oxide, and carbon nanotubes to create composite structures. A significant portion of the research focuses on hybrid nanofluids to improve heat transfer in solar collectors and heat exchangers. Applications span solar thermal energy harvesting, building energy efficiency, and thermal management for batteries and electronics. The recurring use of terms like "thermal conductivity," "energy storage," and "solar collector" indicates a strong focus on practical integration of thermal storage with renewable energy sources and industrial heat processes.
Boron research accounts for 1.8% of all Boron studies, with 2,529 papers in this group, making it the element with the highest share of its total research dedicated to this community. Carbon contributes the largest absolute number of papers, with 4,599 entries, representing 0.5% of all Carbon research.
The community comprises 24,218 papers, publishing most frequently in the Journal of Energy Storage, Applied Thermal Engineering, and the Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry.
Recent work continues to focus on flexible polymer-based phase change composites for battery thermal management, solar-thermal energy conversion using structured skeletons, and the development of high-thermal-conductivity composites from biomass and carbon nanotubes for electronic device cooling.