Salt hydrate-silicone foam composite for heat storage application

The present paper deals with the preliminary study carried out on innovative polymeric foams based on silicone and MgSO4?7H2O, as a salt hydrate. Composites with variable quantity of embedded salt, from 40 wt.% up to 70 wt.%, were prepared, according to an established foaming procedure. A complete physicochemical characterization was carried out to investigate the main properties of the composite foams. The morphological characterization showed that the foam pores were homogenously distributed and well interconnected to each other. Thermo-gravimetric dehydration tests, under real operating conditions, demonstrated that the tested samples are able to efficiently exchange water.