from the conferences organized by TANGER Ltd.
Thermal energy storage (TES) systems used in industrial applications, such as power plants, must store large amounts of thermal energy. Meeting demands for high heat capacity, low thermal diffusivity, and structural stability at elevated temperatures requires selecting optimal nanostructures. Conventional planar graphene is a well-known material for its exceptionally high thermal conductivity and has been extensively investigated. However, to enhance energy retention and storage efficiency, it is necessary to adopt advanced three-dimensional (3D) architecture. This study investigates molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of optimized, conventional pillared graphene (PG) nanostructures designed to improve thermal energy storage. While previous research has mainly examined PG as a thermal conductor, the present research focuses on PG architecture composed of parallel graphene layers connected by carbon nanotube (CNT) pillars, exploiting their three-dimensional geometry to localize phonons and reduce thermal dissipation. The unit-cell models, featuring systematic changes in pillar length, spacing between pillars, and CNT chirality, are investigated using MD simulations. The systems are equilibrated under an NVT ensemble using the AIREBO potential, incorporating heat flux to identify regions of thermal accumulation. The key performance indicators include specific heat capacity obtained from energy fluctuations, the stability of the potential energy, and structural robustness evaluated through the mean squared displacement (MSD). These results demonstrate the significance of the pillared graphene structure as an advanced material or high-temperature coating for TES systems, expanding their potential use in industrial thermal management while offering environmental benefits. Future studies will explore more advanced structural modifications to further improve thermal storage performance.
Keywords: Pillared graphene, molecular dynamics, thermal energy storage, phonons, heat capacity© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.