Photothermal conversion combined with phase change materials (PCMs) has been pursued by researchers in solar energy harvesting and thermal management fields, and has been realized in composite systems. However, a flexible hydrogel that integrates biomass photothermal conversion, reversible latent heat storage, and tunable mechanical properties has not yet been explored.
A team from Northeast Forestry University propose a ternary system, and designs a thermo-responsive phase change hydrogel with both high photothermal conversion and mechanical tunability. The hydrogel uses carbonized wood powder as the photothermal agent and sodium acetate trihydrate as the phase change material, accompanied within a crosslinked polyacrylamide network. This composite material achieves a latent heat of 114.14 J/g and heats to 84.7 ℃ within 500 s under xenon lamp irradiation, and exhibits a thermally driven rigid-to-flexible transition.
This work provides a mechanically tunable phase change hydrogel for efficient solar energy capture and storage, which opens a way to design flexible, sustainable thermal management materials for personal thermal management and electronic device thermal control. The work titled “A mechanically tunable thermo-responsive phase change hydrogel for solar energy conversion and storage”, was published on Journal of Forestry Engineering (published on Sep. 25, 2026).
DOI: 10.13360/j.issn.2096-1359.202505016