Experimental characterization of composites materials for thermochemical storage with foam matrices

A preliminary study on an innovative polymeric foam-based composite, embedding MgSO4 7H2O is presented. Composites with variable quantity of embedded salt, from 40 wt. % up to 70 wt. %, were prepared, according to an established foaming procedure, and characterized. The morphological characterization showed that the foam pores were homogenously distributed and well interconnected to each other. On the contrary, the salt distribution, for the highest salt percentage samples (70 wt. %), was not perfectly homogenous, probably due to the not sufficient effectiveness of the foaming process. Thermo-gravimetric dehydration tests, under real operating conditions, demonstrated that the tested samples are able to efficiently exchange water. Nevertheless, the actual salt content of the tested samples resulted quite lower than the nominal one, probably due to issues related to the foaming process occurring during the samples preparation. Further activities will be performed to optimize the composition and preparation phase and to test the new thermochemical energy storage composites in a lab-scale reactor.