The role of thermal mass in indoor air-cooling during the day is a common area of study, which is particularly relevant for an era characterized by energy crises. Thermal energy storage (TES) technologies for application in rooms and buildings are not well developed. This study focuses on the use of coconut oil (co_oil) as a temperature control agent for room air conditioning systems in tropical countries such as Indonesia, given its capability to store large amounts of heat at temperatures around its melting point. Heat exchange studies between co_oil and the air environment were performed by considering three factors: Temperature difference between co_oil and the air environment, the heat absorption behavior and the release of co_oil, and the mass of co_oil required to have a significant effect. The co_oil cell sizes were formulated as responses to natural day and night air temperature profiles, while the performance of the co_oil mass for decreasing room air temperature was predicted using a thermal chamber.

The role of chemical additives to the phase change process of CaCl 2 .

We calculate the electronic and optical properties of layered oxychalcogenide (LaO)Cu Ch ( Ch = S, Se, Te) systems by using generalized gradient approximation method based on density-functional theory. As the results, we obtain direct bandgap for Ch = S, Se, and Te of 1.67, 1.44, and 1.20 eV, respectively. We also find that valence band for each Ch element can be divided into three states, i.e., antibonding and bonding states that come from strong hybridization of Cu 3d-t _2g and Ch p, and nonbonding states that come from localized Cu 3d-e _g states. The local symmetry of Cu ion is distorted tetrahedral due to Jahn–Teller distortion on Cu 3d states, in which d _{z x} and d _{z y} are at the same energy level. Using Drude–Lorentz model, highest dielectric constants and optical dichroism are found in (LaO)CuTe, while p-type conductivity is stronger in (LaO)CuSe system. Energy levels of plasmonic states can also be tuned by changing Ch element. Our results comprehensively present the electronic properties of (LaO)Cu Ch systems and predict the dielectric functions and plasmonic features, which are essential for novel functional device applications.

The thermophysical parameters of organic phase change material (PCM) of coconut oil (co_oil) have been studied by analyzing the temperature vs time data during liquid-solid phase transition (solidification process) based on T-history method, adopting the original version and its modified form to extract the values of mean specific heats of the solid and liquid co_oil and the heat of fusion related to phase transition of co_oil. We found that the liquid-solid phase transition occurs rather gradually, which might be due to the fact that co_oil consists of many kinds of fatty acids with the largest amount of lauric acid (about 50%), with relatively small supercooling degree. For this reason, the end of phase transition region become smeared out, although the inflection point in the temperature derivative is clearly observed signifying the drastic temperature variation between the phase transition and solid phase periods. The data have led to the values of mean specific heat of the solid and liquid co_oil that are comparable to the pure lauric acid, while the value for heat of fusion is resemble to those of the DSC result, both from references data. The advantage of co_oil as the potential sensible and latent TES for room-temperature conditioning application in Indonesia is discussed in terms of its rather broad working temperature range due to its mixture composition characteristic.