Highly hydrophobic silanized melamine foam for facile and uniform assembly of graphene nanoplatelet towards efficient light-to-thermal energy storage

Solar-thermal technology based on phase change materials (PCMs) has received a lot of attention as cost-effective and practical way to overcome solar energy intermittency. However, weak photothermal conversion ability complex preparation processes have hindered the application PCMs. In this work, new approach for facile, uniform, firm assembly graphene nanoplatelet (GNP) through reaction oxide (GO) with silanized melamine foam (MF) is introduced. Here, deposited amino siloxane layer not only promotes adhesion integrity embedded GNP/GO nanosheets but also facilitates synthetic route compared previous studies. Following reduction GO oleylamine (OA), hybrid GNP/rGO foams an integrated network were obtained. The composite PCMs prepared incorporation paraffin wax (PW) into structure. high hydrophobicity porosity resulted in loading (nearly 97 wt%) thus large transition enthalpy 182 J g-1. framework provided excellent solar-thermal storage efficiency up 92.2%. PCM containing highest content GNP (6 revealed enhanced thermal conductivity by 87% unmodified MF/PW composite.