review · International Journal of Thermofluids
Phase change materials store and manage thermal energy by using latent heat, but their corrosive effects on container and encapsulation materials can compromise system performance. Ensuring chemical compatibility between storage fluids and containment vessels is essential for extending the operational lifespan of thermal management installations. Degradation mechanisms depend on temperature, exposure duration, flow conditions, and cycling. Common containment metals exhibit varying vulnerabilities when exposed to organic, inorganic, and metallic storage media. Carbon steels and copper experience the highest rates of corrosive deterioration, whereas aluminium primarily suffers from galvanic pitting caused by impurities. Stainless steels demonstrate superior corrosion resistance despite experiencing chromium and alloying element depletion that can alter fluid thermal behaviour. Silicon carbide provides exceptional resistance against degradation. Overall, container corrosion levels increase from silicon carbide to stainless steel, aluminium, copper, and carbon steel.
Thermal energy storage systems rely on phase change materials to capture and release heat efficiently. If storage containers corrode, systems risk premature failure, fluid contamination, and costly maintenance. Understanding how different metals and ceramics degrade under operational conditions helps engineers select robust container materials, preventing leaks and preserving optimal thermal performance over extended operating lifetimes.
This review supports equipment designers and manufacturers of thermal energy storage and cooling systems in selecting durable containment materials. By identifying the corrosion limits of common metals alongside resilient alternatives like silicon carbide, the findings inform early-stage material specification and containment design. The work represents early-stage to applied engineering research, providing comparative baseline evidence and mitigation strategies rather than finished, market-ready storage products.
AI-generated from the published abstract. Always read the original work before citing.
Phase Change Materials (PCMs) employ latent heat property for storage and management of thermal energy in various applications. In order to ensure efficient performances of PCMs, their compositional compatibility in terms of corrosiveness on container/encapsulation materials is as important as thermal characteristic. This compatibility is usually determined with respect to factors such as exposure time and temperature, flow and non-flow condition, and static and dynamic conditions. The basic understanding of how corrosion/degradation mechanisms proceed on PCMs’ container/encapsulation materials provides for extended serviceability of thermal management or storage systems. Therefore, this paper has reviewed the corrosion/degradation mechanisms of container/encapsulation materials subjected to organic, inorganic and metallic PCMs exposure under static-isothermal, static-thermal cycling, dynamic-isothermal conditions. Common materials for containers and encapsulation are Carbon Steels (CS), Copper (CP), Aluminium (AL) and Stainless Steels (SS) where CS and CP were mostly degraded due to PCMs’ corrosive attack. Aluminium is mostly faced with pitting based on galvanic effect of impurities contained while the challenge mostly encountered with stainless steels is alloying element depletion, especially chromium depletion which can change the thermal properties of the fluid. However, SS have shown to be the most resistant to corrosive attacks. Another material with potential for use as container material is SiC, a corrosion resistant material. Generally, degree of corrosion for these materials are in the order of SiC<SS<AL<CP<CS. Overview of methods so far investigated for combating corrosive attacks of PCMs on container/encapsulation materials have been highlighted and recommendations on areas of further research are provided.
This page summarises published work. The authoritative version sits with the publisher.
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijft.2023.100360
Is something wrong with this record? Report it or request removal.
Discussion
Have you built on this work, tried to replicate it, or seen it applied in practice? Share what you know. Verified researchers and MARATTO™ domain experts can open a discussion, and any member can reply. Contributions are reviewed before they appear.
No discussion yet. Open the first thread.
New to MARATTO™? Create a free account.
