Abstract
The melting temperature of acetanilide C8H9NO equals 116 degrees C which lies in the range of solar cooking (boiling cooking) of most kinds of food. Acetanilide was used in previous studies as a storage medium integrated within box type solar cookers. However, detailed studies of melting and/or solidification behavior of acetanilide were not reported. Therefore, the main aim of this work was to study the effect of fast thermal melting/solidification cycling of commercial grade acetanilide on its melting point and latent heat of fusion. One thousand thermal cycles had been performed and the thermophysical properties of acetanilide were measured using the differential scanning calorimetric technique. It was indicated that acetanilide solidifies with similar to 15 degrees C of supercooling; consequently, it is recommended to overcome the supercooling problem before using acetanilide as a thermal storage material for solar energy applications.