Citation: Yifan Liu, Jiazuo Zhou, Ziyao Wang, Lei Qiao, Yudong Li, Yuan Yu, Cong Li, Jinliang Zhu, Yuehe Gu, Xiaohan Sun, Haiyue Yang, Chengyu Wang. Hydrated salt hydrogel with switchable stiffness and tunable thermal performance for environmental low-grade thermal management[J]. Chinese Chemical Letters, ;2026, 37(7): 112196. doi: 10.1016/j.cclet.2025.112196 shu

Hydrated salt hydrogel with switchable stiffness and tunable thermal performance for environmental low-grade thermal management

Yifan Liu ^{a, 1} ,
Jiazuo Zhou ^{a, 1} ,
Ziyao Wang ^a ,
Lei Qiao ^a ,
Yudong Li ^a ,
Yuan Yu ^a ,
Cong Li ^a ,
Jinliang Zhu ^a ,
Yuehe Gu ^a ,
Xiaohan Sun ^b ,
Haiyue Yang ^{a, *,} ,
Chengyu Wang ^{a, *,}

a.
Key Laboratory of Bio-based Material Science and Technology of Ministry of Education, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China
b.
School of Chemical Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China

haiyueyang@nefu.edu.cn

wangcy@nefu.edu.cn

Received Date: 4 July 2025
Revised Date: 13 October 2025
Accepted Date: 27 November 2025
Available Online: 2 December 2025

Figures(5)

To reduce the pollution of waste heat to the environment and achieve Sustainable Development Goals, recovering and utilizing of low-grade heat is critical. Although various thermal conversion technologies have been extensively developed, research on thermal energy storage materials with dynamically adjustable properties for diverse applications is still lacking. Herein, hydrated salt hydrogel with switchable stiffness and tunable thermal performance was fabricated by simply incorporating sodium acetate trihydrate into hydrogel network. Hydrated salt hydrogel displayed adjustable thermal performance (maximum heat release temperature from 53 ℃ to 20 ℃; enthalpy value from 0 to 179 J/g) by regulated sodium acetate trihydrate concentration of hydrogels. Moreover, the control of variable mechanical strength (0.03–5.21 MPa) and toughness (0.02–420.58 MPa) was accomplished. The study further demonstrates the promising application of hydrated salt hydrogel in thermal management for electronics and controllable soft-rigid coupling thermoelectric devices, opening new opportunities in waste heat recovery and achieving Sustainable Development Goals.
- Hydrated salt gel,
- Phase change materials,
- Mechanical properties,
- Low-grade heat,
- Thermal management
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沈阳化工大学材料科学与工程学院沈阳 110142