Phase change material for the cold storage of perishable products: From material preparation to material evaluation

• PCM fabrication does not require any sophisticated methods or materials. • A new safe and reliable PCM for the low temperature domain was developed. • Thermal properties of three types of PCMs are comprehensively analyzed. • Through the cycle, the melting point or latent heat of PCM changes little. The preparation, characterization and modification of compounds as novel phase-change materials (PCMs) were investigated in this study. Organic PCMs were prepared by adding edible additives (D-(+)-glucos, glycine and D-sorbitol), and to a 1% NaCl solution. A simple experimental method was designed to prepare organic PCMs to select an efficient low-temperature PCM that for application to cold-chain logistics. The results show that a 5% glycine–1% NaCl solution is an excellent PCM. This PCM has a phase transition temperature and latent heat of phase change (ΔH) of −5.94 °C and 291.15 J/g, respectively, and a thermal conductivity of 0.58 W(m·K). The phase transition temperature of the 5% glycine–1% NaCl solution after 50 cycles is −6.72 °C. The ΔH of the 5% glycine–1% NaCl solution after 50 cycles is 275.79 J/g. This value is 15.36 J/g lower than that before cycling. The ΔH and phase-transition temperature of the 5% glycine–1% NaCl solution are not significantly different before and after cycling. The developed novel PCM has considerable practical application prospects for fruit and seafood refrigerated transportation systems over a temperature range of −6 to −4 °C.