Green conversion of delignified sorghum straw and polyethylene glycol into form-stable phase change materials with promising solar energy capture, transition, and storage capabilities

Phase change materials (PCMs) have attracted considerable attention as a thermal energy management technology for thermal storage. However, achieving high energy-storing abilities, low leakage rates, and solar absorption abilities simultaneously in PCMs remains greatly challenging. This research proposed a green strategy for preparing sorghum straw-based PCMs. By facile delignification and solvothermal process, delignified sorghum straw (DSS) and carbon quantum dots (CQDs) derived from removal lignin are prepared. The obtained PEG@CQDs/DSS possessed considerable reusable stabilities, excellent photo-thermal conversion properties, and thermal energy management capacities due to the delicate micropores and intrinsic noncovalent interactions among components. Especially, the PEG@CQDs-7.5/DSS exhibited superior solar-thermal conversion capabilities (with conducive photo-thermal conversion efficiency ~90.84%), and kept stable after 100 cycles of heating and cooling, in which the melting enthalpy value is ~168.1 J/g (enthalpy efficiency of ~91.11%). In conclusion, the synthesized PCMs showed potential for application in energy-saving and building thermal management.