Thermal Fluids with High Specific Heat Capacity through Reversible Diels–Alder Reactions

Thermal fluids are used as heat transfer fluids and thermal energy storage media in many energy technologies ranging from solar thermal heating to battery thermal management. The heat capacity of state-of-the-art thermal fluids remains ~50% of water (which suffers from a limited operation range between 0^o C and 100^o C), and their viscosities are typically more than one order of magnitude higher than that of water. Our results demonstrate that the heat capacity of the proposed thermochemical fluid is significantly higher than state-of-the-art thermal fluids over a broad temperature range, and is also higher than that of water between 60^o and 90^o C. The viscosity of our liquid is only 3 times higher than that of water and the operating temperature range is between -90^o C – 135^o C. Furthermore, a model was developed allowing for novel design of thermochemical thermal fluids in the future with even higher heat capacity.