ABSTRACT
Buildings have a remarkable rate of power consumption at 45% of global energy. Many passive-cooling methods have been used, and in addition, phase-change materials (PCM) are installed within these buildings for the purpose of promoting temperature moderation, stopping heat from accumulating, improving heat absorption and minimising indoor heat gain. The method in which PCM stores thermal energy is effective in improving the buildings’ aggregate heat capacity. Interest has been strong in PCMs that have high energy density to be deployed in buildings with high thermal inertia in order to save a high amount of energy. PCMs has its own drawbacks, and the primary one is the extra time required to the charge/discharge energy process as well as storage performance, which happens due to poor thermal conductivity. Therefore, attention is focussed on improving its thermal conductivity through the use of nanotechnology and nanomaterials. There has been a rapid development lately within the nanomaterials field resulting in the latest technology with nanosized particles in improving the PCM’s thermophysical properties. PCM has several thermal and physical qualities such as viscosity, heat capacity, supercooling and thermal conductivities. These attributes could be significantly improved through dispersal of thermal conductive nanoparticles including nanometal-oxide, nanocarbon and nanometals. This chapter will explore research that has been recently conducted in the aforementioned development of nanomaterials that are being used to improve the PCMs’ thermal performance, which is appropriate in passive cooling within the built environment. The focus would be on material type, method of synthetisation and the outcome of the improvement.
