Review on the Phase Change Materials in Wood for Thermal Regulative Wood-Based Products

Abstract

Wood is an excellent building material or component that has been used all over the world. The rise in energy consumption worldwide, particularly in the building sector, has led to the development of diverse methods to overcome this problem. Embedding phase change material, PCM, into the wood has been researched as one of the most effective alternatives of controlling the thermal loads of wood, as it can store and release latent heat energy at a specific temperature range. Due to increasing interest, this article reviews the PCM in wood, including some research on the recent efforts that has been made by other researchers regarding this topic. This article also provides insight into problems associated with the wood and wood-based products incorporated with PCM. From the three groups of PCM, namely organic, inorganic, and eutectic mixture, the organic and eutectic mixture were most commonly chosen and successfully impregnated into wood structure. Carbonization and delignification can help to increase the stabilization of the PCM in wood. Adding PCM to wood sometimes decreases its strength, thus balancing between the thermal regulative performance and other industrial requirements needed to fabricate a fully functional thermal-regulative wood.