Adaptive multi-temperature control for transport and storage containers enabled by phase-change materials.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 37673906.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-023-40988-2 and PMC identifier 10482904.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
The transportation of essential items, such as food and vaccines, often requires adaptive multi-temperature control to maintain high safety and efficiency. While existing methods utilizing phase change materials have shown promise, challenges related to heat transfer and materials' physicochemical properties remain. In this study, we present an adaptive multi-temperature control system using liquid-solid phase transitions to achieve highly effective thermal management using a pair of heat and cold sources. By leveraging the properties of stearic acid and distilled water, we fabricated a multi-temperature maintenance container and demonstrated temperature variations of only 0.14-2.05% over a two-hour period, underscoring the efficacy of our approach. Our findings offer a practical solution to address critical challenges in reliable transportation of goods, with potential implications for various fields in physical, engineering, and life sciences.