Thermal performance of caprylic acid/1-dodecanol eutectic mixture as phase change material (PCM)

Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) is used to investigate the thermal properties of caprylic acid, 1-dodecanol and their binary system. The experimental results show that the caprylic acid/1-dodecanol binary system presents eutectic point. The eutectic melting temperature (T_em) is 6.52 °C, and the latent heat of melting of eutectic mixture (ΔH_em) is 171.06 J g⁻¹. The corresponding mass fraction of 1-dodecanol in eutectic mixture is 30%. The eutectic melting temperature and the latent heat of phase change of eutectic mixture have not obvious variations after 60 and 120 thermal cycles, which proves that the eutectic mixture has good thermal stability.