Microencapsulation of stearic acid with polymethylmethacrylate using iron(Ⅲ) chloride as photo-initiator for thermal energy storage

Aiming to identify the validity of fabricating microencapsulated phase change material(PCM) with polymethylmethacrylate(PMMA) by ultraviolet curing emulsion polymerization method using iron(III) chloride as photoinitiator,SA/PMMA microcapsules were prepared and various techniques were employed to determine the ignition mechanism,structural characteristics and thermal properties of the composite.The results shown that the microcapsules containing SA with maximum percentage of 52.20 wt% formed by radical mechanism and only physical interactions existed in the components both in the prepared process and subsequent use.The phase change temperatures and latent heats of the microencapsulated SA were measured as 55.3 °C and 102.1 J·g^(-1) for melting,and 48.8 °C and 102.8 J·g^(-1) for freezing,respectively.Thermal gravimetric analysis revealed that SA/PMMA has good thermal durability in working temperature range.The results of accelerated thermal cycling test are all shown that the SA/PMMA have excellent thermal reliability and chemical stability although they were subjected 1000 melting/freezing cycles.In summary,the comparable thermal storage ability and good thermal reliability facilitated SA/PMMA to be considered as a viable candidate for thermal energy storage.The successful fabrication of SA/PMMA capsules indicates that ferric chloride is a prominent candidate for synthesizing PMMA containing PCM composite.

Synthesis of N-Alkane Mixture Microcapsule and Its Application in Low-Temperature Protective Fabric

We investigated synthesis and characterization of melamine-urea-formaldehyde（MUF） microcapsules containing n-alkane mixture as phase change core material for thermal energy storage and low-temperature protection. The phase change microcapsules（microPCMs） were prepared by an in situ polymerization using sodium dodecyl sulfate（SDS） and polyvinyl alcohol（PVA） as emulsifiers. Surface morphology, particle size, chemical structure, and thermal properties of microPCMs were, respectively, characterized by using scanning electron microscopy（SEM）, field emission scanning electron microscopy（FESEM）, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy（FT-IR）, differential scanning calorimetry（DSC）, and thermal gravimetric analysis（TGA）. Low-temperature resistance performances were measured at-15,-30,-45, and-60 ℃ after microPCMs were coated on a cotton fabric by foaming technology. The results showed that spherical microPCMs had 4.4 μm diameter and 100 nm wall thickness. The melting and freezing temperatures and the latent heats of the microPCMs were determined as 28.9 and 29.6 ℃ as well as 110.0 and 115.7 J/g, respectively. Encapsulation of n-alkane mixture achieved 84.9 %. TGA analysis indicated that the microPCMs had good chemical stability below 250 ℃. The results showed that the microencapsulated n-alkane mixture had good energy storage potential. After the addition of 10 % microPCMs, low-temperature resistance duration was prolonged by 126.9%, 145.5%, 128.6%, and 87.5% in environment of-15,-30,-45 and-60 ℃, respectively as compared to pure fabric. Based on the results, phase change microcapsule plays an effective role in lowtemperature protection field for the human body.