Study on Flexible Styrene‐Ethylene‐Butylene‐Styrene‐Coal Gangue Composite Phase Change Encapsulation Materials for Battery Thermal Management

Coal gangue (CG) solid waste causes severe environmental issues, and pure paraffin wax (PW) has leakage and low thermal conductivity defects, limiting its battery thermal management application. Here, CG‐styrene‐ethylene‐butylene‐styrene (SEBS)/PW composite phase change materials (CPCMs) with different ratios were prepared by physical mixing, with CG as porous carrier and SEBS as polymer encapsulant. Characterizations confirmed only physical interactions between components; PW was uniformly loaded to form a rigid‐flexible synergistic structure, retaining PW's phase change performance with no leakage at 50°C. SP5 showed excellent stability after 1000 thermal cycles, and sample achieved the optimal thermal conductivity (over 100% higher than pure PW). The flexible CPCMs could be tightly wrapped on cylindrical batteries. battery thermal management tests at 1.5–3 C discharge rates indicated that CPCM‐coated batteries had obvious temperature rise delay effects, with the safe operation time to 50°C prolonged 1.5–2.5 times compared with the blank group (more prominent at higher rates), effectively suppressing battery overheating. This work realizes high‐value CG utilization and provides a high‐performance flexible CPCM for battery thermal management, facilitating green development of the coal and new energy battery industries.