Polymer/expanded graphite-based flexible phase change material with high thermal conductivity for battery thermal management

Phase change materials, as smart, ideal latent heat storage, and passive technology, have become the promising option for thermal management. However, the melting leakage, poor mechanical property, and intrinsic low thermal conductivity are long-standing bottlenecks for practical applications. In this study, a synergetic method is proposed to fabricate phase change composites with excellent shape stability, flexible property, and high thermal conductivity. Here, paraffin is used as thermal energy storage material, styrene-ethylene-propylene-styrene served as supporting material provides a cross-linked network to restrict paraffin molecular and endow the composite with thermal-induced flexibility, and expanded graphite with lamellar structure constructs an interconnected thermally network. The thermal conductivities of composites reach up to 2.671–10.019 W m⁻¹ K⁻¹ with EG loading of 5–30 wt%. Simultaneously, the phase transition enthalpy is measured as high as 155.4–211.9 kJ kg⁻¹, indicating that the composites have good thermal properties. In addition, the composites exhibit superior thermal management behavior by controlling the operating temperature of battery to below 50 °C under normal discharge-charge and dynamic stress test cycles. Therefore, this work offers a convenient and efficient method to synthesize scalable form-stable composite with promising performance for battery thermal management and other advanced thermal management applications.