Novel phase change cold energy storage materials for refrigerated transportation of fruits

The technology of cold energy storage with phase change materials (PCMs) can effectively reduce carbon emissions compared with the traditional refrigerated transportation mode, so it has attracted increasing attention. Using sodium carbonate decahydrate (SCD) as the cold energy carrier, and improving its performance through additives, the SCD composite PCM for refrigerated transportation of fresh fruits was successfully prepared. Its melting temperature was 9.3 °C, melting latent heat was 90.7 J/g, and the degree of supercooling was 5 °C. The phase and microstructure of the prepared PCMs were investigated by XRD and SEM respectively, which proved the materials had good compatibility. The application experiment showed that the cold storage plate filled with prepared PCM could storage cold energy at an ambient temperature of 2 °C, and the prepared PCM could significantly prolong the preservation time of fruits.