Cooperative In Situ Impregnation of PEG and Au Nanoparticles into Expanded CNT Network Toward Composite Phase Change Fibers with High Storage Capacity and Photothermal Conversion

Phase change fibers with multifunctionalities are a promising material for thermal management applications, however, it is still challenging to simultaneously give the fiber high energy conversion and storage capacity. Here, a cooperative in situ impregnation strategy is reported, to introduce Au nanoparticles (NPs) and polyethylene glycol (PEG) together into carbon nanotube (CNT) network during the expansion process, resulting in a CNT/Au/PEG composite phase change fiber. The obtained composite fiber have the characteristics of high loading (up to 88.0–98.6%) and uniform distribution of Au NPs, and thus exhibits superior mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties. The presence of Au NPs plays more important role in not only improving the PEG crystallinity and phase change enthalpy, but also enhancing the photothermal conversion efficiency (up to 88.2%). There is also a new feature of precise regulation of the phase change temperatures, e.g., from 9.5 to 20.5 °C for the solidification temperature. More importantly, due to the strong confinement of PEG and Au NPs inside the CNT network, the composite fiber also shows excellent thermal stabilities, including the anti-leakage behavior and cycling phase change ability.