▎ 摘 要
Phase change materials (PCMs) containing graphene nano-platelets (GNPs) were fabricated and utilized for efficient thermo-electric energy harvesting during the phase transition process. A system composed of two different PCMs at opposite positions can absorb or release large amounts of thermal energy while remaining in a nearly isothermal condition. Based on the Seebeck effect, the energy harvesting system generates electrical current from temperature differences. The increase in the thermal conductivity of the PCMs can create isothermal fields and enhance thermoelectric energy conversion efficiency. In this study, two different PCM composites were found to exhibit higher thermal conductivity with increasing the amount of GNPs filler. The thermal conductivity of the two composites clearly increased to 0.5858 W/mK and 0.4974 W/mK, while the heating and cooling thermo-electric conversion efficiencies were also enhanced to 55.59% and 33.33%. Furthermore, the thermo-electric energy profiles were numerically modeled using the finite element method (FEM) to compare with the experimental results.