Shape-stable phase change composite for highly efficiency thermal energy storage using metal-organic framework-encapsulated yeast as porous carbon carrier

Technical barriers including the poor thermal conductivity, low energy conversion efficiency, and melting leakage hindered the large-scale storage of waste heat and solar energy by the shape-stable phase change materials (ss-PCMs). To address the challenges mentioned above, a high-performance ss-PCM is fabricated using the thermal conducive 3D interconnected scaffold that derived from a biomimetically grown yeast-templated zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) precursor. After carbonization, the morphology and porosity-controlled bio-inspired derived ZIF-8@yeast porous carbon (DYC) exhibited unique porous skeleton, which allowing high capillary adsorption and effective chemical interaction for mannitol storage. The obtained DYC/mannitol ss-PCM exhibited high thermal conductivity (1.17 W/mK), high relative enthalpy efficiency (98.96%), and outstanding stability and recyclability. Meanwhile, compared with the pure mannitol, the supercooling degree of the novel DYC/mannitol was decreased by 18.42%. All findings suggested that the ss-PCM by yeast-templated MOFs derived hierarchical porous carbon has good application prospects in high-density energy storage.