Preparation and characterization of magnetic phase-change microcapsules

Magnetic microcapsules containing paraffin cores within urea-formaldehyde shells were fabricated utilizing in situ polymerization, with iron nano-particles as magnetic particles. The thermal properties, surface morphologies, magnetic properties and iron nano-particles content of the magnetic phasechange microcapsules were investigated by scanning electronic microscopy (SEM), differential scan- ning calorimetry (DSC), vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM) and inductively coupled plasma quantometry (ICP). The influence of iron nano-particles on morphologies was also considered. The results indicate that the melting point of magnetic phase-change microcapsules is almost identical to that of paraffin. The magnetism parameters such as specific saturation magnetization and residual magnetization of magnetic phase-change microcapsules increase with the increase of iron nano-particles content.