Preparation, Characterization and Thermal Energy Storage Properties of Micro/Nano Encapsulated Phase Change Material with Acrylic-Based Polymer

The eutectic mixture of octacosane (C28)-heptadecane (C17) as core material was successfully encapsulated with an acrylic-based polymer (polymethylmethacrylate; PMMA) as shell material through emulsion polymerization. The polymeric reaction occurred around the core material was characterized by FTIR spectroscopy analysis. The polarized optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and particle size distribution investigations showed that the most of the prepared capsules had almost spherical shape with non-unimodal size distribution in micro-nano range. The differential scanning calorimetry analysis results exhibited that the capsules including highest amount of the eutectic PCM had a melting temperature of about 21 degrees C and a latent heat capacity of about 98 J/g. The high thermal durability of the prepared capsules was confirmed by thermogravimetric analysis. The thermal cycling test designated that the synthesized capsules had good long-term usage latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) performance and chemical stability. Furthermore; the fabricated capsules with (1: 2) shell/core ratio had a reasonable thermal conductivity. It can be drawn a conclusion from all results that the prepared capsules especially PMMA/(C28-C17) (1: 2) product is a hopeful PCM that can be evaluated for low-temperature LHTES applications.