Recent progress and prospective of medium and high temperatures thermal energy storage materials

High performance materials play a key role in the development of thermal energy storage technologies. This paper first provides a state-of-the-art review on the development of thermal energy storage materials with a specific focus on applications at medium and high temperatures. The review covers classification, characteristics, applications and technological barriers for sensible heat storage materials, thermochemical storage materials and latent heat storage materials. Recent progress in the composite structured thermal energy storage materials is then presented. Finally, an outlook of future development of the medium and high temperatures thermal storage materials is given and nano/micro-structured composite materials are recommended as a direction for future research.