Phase Change Materials and Triboelectric Sensors
A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Electronic Sensors".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 April 2025 | Viewed by 246
Special Issue Editors
2. IMDEA Materials Institute, Madrid, Spain
Interests: novel materials; additive manufacturing; sensors; 3D printing; aerospace; scaffolds; flexible electronics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Solid–liquid phase change materials (PCMs) are typically employed in latent heat storage systems for heat generation, solar power, and space thermal control. Because of their capacity to melt and harden over a wide range of temperatures, they are suitable for various purposes.
PCMs are a viable technology for storing thermal energy at a constant temperature. During the transition of a material from one phase to another, a significant amount of energy is typically stored or released as latent heat. However, the majority of phase change materials (PCMs) have flaws like a low phase change enthalpy, poor specific heat, and thermal conductivity, all of which are problematic. As a result, in order to achieve effective thermal energy storage, the thermophysical properties of PCMs must be enhanced while preserving their original qualities.
To construct a successful thermal energy management system based on PCMs, it is essential to understand the behavior of PCMs during the melting and solidification stages. Temperature readings are frequently employed to determine the amount of thermal energy possessed by PCMs. However, many instances of solid–liquid phase change materials have the same temperature, but different energy levels.
Employing methods based on traditional temperature sensors is therefore not suitable. One potential method of measuring the start and end points of solid–liquid phase changes is through the use of optical fiber sensors (OFSs). Because of their compact size, immunity to electronic interference, and remote-sensing capabilities, OFSs have been popular in various industries, including automotive, chemical, aviation, and medical diagnosis. In addition, phase change materials (PCMs) are essential optical materials with rapid and reversible phase changes, significant optical property differences in crystalline and non-crystalline states, the capacity for scaling, and the quality of being non-volatile. The PCM platform is constantly developing and integrating with various material platforms. This has led to theoretical proposals and experiments that reveal more reconfigurable and dynamically controlled photonic devices, demonstrating the great potential of PCMs in integrated photonic chips.
The possibilities of dielectric and metal nanostructures that can be switched by PCMs are endless. The rapid development of technology has led to the emergence of various structures with different functions, including filters, lenses, absorbers, and sensors. Over the next few decades, phase change material-based nanophotonic devices will expand on commercial device platforms.
This Special Issue is focused on triboelectric sensors, as a continuation of the previous issue titled “Recent advances in triboelectric sensors”. This is a very “cutting-edge” topic that complements the exploration of PCMs. The fact that electrical energy is self-generated by the triboelectric layers makes these sensors operate either as energy harvesters or energy generators in a huge number of fields such as medicine, electronics, communications, energy harvesting, alarms and safety, and signal detection.
Dr. Jose Sanchez del Río Sáez
Dr. Carolina Hermida Merino
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- fiber sensors
- phase change monitoring
- phase change materials
- photonic devices
- triboelectric energy nanogenerators
- energy-harvesting signal generation
- triboelectric sensors
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