Comprehensive use of fossil derivative: High value-added conversion of waste plastics to thermal energy storage materials

As one of the most common fossil derivatives, plastic is indispensable in daily life because of its promising mechanical properties, chemical stability, and easy accessibility. However, plastics still present a huge burden on the global environment due to their high production volume, difficulty with degradation and low recycling rate. At the same time, global primary energy reserves are decreasing, thus achieving highly efficient use of energy has become a hot topic of research. Herein, the waste plastics can be utilized as a supporting material and encapsulation the phase change materials through intermolecular hyper-crosslinking reaction with the assistance of Lewis acids. To illustrate the effect of porous structure on the thermophysical properties and energy storage characteristics of the obtained materials, three aromatic crosslinkers, triphenylphosphine, triphenylbenzene, and benzene were examined regarding their performance on the Fridel-Crafts reactions. It is found that the obtained materials bearing a thermal conductivity and latent heat of 0.22 W/mK and 145.7 J/g, respectively, without liquid leakage.