Synthesis of highly thermal conductive polyethylene terephthalate polymer to use as packging material of phase change materials

The objective of this study is to synthesize Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) polymer with enhanced thermal conductivity that could be utilized as packaging material in phase change material (PCM) applications for fast thermal response. PCM's have long been studied and found applications for purposes of thermal energy storage and/or recovery, in a wide temperature range. PCMs needs to be contained in an appropriate packaging material for controlled phase transition, ease of transportation and storage. The packaging material should be non- toxic, non-corrosive, easily available and cheap. PET polymer has long been utilized as packaging material in various industries. This study will improve growing PET industry by adding a new field to existing applications. In addition,, by increasing the variety of materials that can be used in PCM packaging, ease of utilization of renewable energy sources and increasing energy efficiency can be achieved. For this purpose, two methods of increasing thermal conductivity by adding 0,1%, 0,5% and 1 % (w/w) of polypyrrole and graphene to PET were tested. The additives were introduced into polymer synthesis environment, right after the esterification stage. This issue is important for simplicity and applicability advantages for mass production and commercialization. It was shown that this route has no drawback for the aspects of either polymerization process or physical properties of final product. The thermal conductivity of produced composites was tested with two different methods. The results revealed that it is possible to produce PET-Graphene composite easily during polymerization reaction and the thermal conductivity could increase up to 0,48 W/mK with only 1 % Graphene, while PET itself thermal conductivity is 0,28 W/mK.