Potential new reference materials for caloric measurements on PCM

Abstract

Current applications of PCM focus on the temperature range from about − 40 °C to about + 80 °C, with the interest expanding up to about 400 °C for future applications in power plants and industry. Calorimetric measurements to determine the ability of PCM to store heat as a function of temperature are done with a variety of methods and instruments. Some of them have been developed only in the last decade, especially to allow characterization of larger samples, even encapsulated PCM with volume in the order of 100 ml and larger. Currently there are not enough reference materials for calibration and testing available to sufficiently cover the required temperature range, being suitable for the used variety of samples regarding size, as well as other requirements of the new methods and instruments. In this paper, we give an introduction, review, and recommendations for new reference materials for calibration and testing.