Can solar heat be stored for the night or even for colder seasons? In this episode of Papers Illuminated – Člankarnica, Dr Alenka Ristić and Jan Marčec explain sorption thermal batteries: systems that store heat rather than electricity.

Based on their new Carbon Energy paper, they explore porous carbon–lithium chloride composites that can adsorb water vapour, store solar-derived heat, and release it when needed. Under the working conditions for house heating, the team achieved up to 966.9 kWh/m³ of energy storage density, while the material remained stable through 50 cycles.

They discuss nanoporous materials, laboratory methods, the challenge of long-term stability, and what it takes to move from an encouraging material in the lab towards practical thermal-energy-storage systems.

You can read the whole paper here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cey2.70256