Preparation and application of polyurethane-urea microcapsules containing phase change materials

For thermal adaptable fabrics, the polyurethane-urea microcapsules containing phase-change materials (PCMs: hexadecane, octadecane and eicosane) were successfully synthesized by interfacial polycondensation using 2,4-toluene diisocyanate (TDI)/poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG400)/ethylene diamine (EDA) as shell monomers and nonionic surfactant NP-12 in an emulsion system under stirring rates of 3,000∼13,000 rpm. The mean particle size of microcapsule decreased significantly with increasing the stirring rate up to 11,000 rpm, and then leveled off. The mean particle size increased with increasing the content and molecular weight (eicosane > octadecane > hexadecane) of PCMs at the same stirring rate. The mean particle sizes of microcapsules were found to decrease with increasing the NP-12 content up to 1.5 wt%, and thereafter increased a little. It was found that the melting temperature (Tm) and crystallization temperature (Tc) of three kinds of encapsulated PCMs and their enthalpy changes (ΔHm, ΔHc) increased with increasing PCM contents. The encapsulation efficiencies (Ee) of hexadecane microcapsule linearly increased with increasing the content of hexadecane. It was found that the stable microcapsule containing 50 wt% of hexadecane could be obtained in this study. However, Ee of octadecane and eicosane microcapsules increased with increasing PCM’s contents up to 40 wt%, and then decreased a little. By considering the encapsulation efficiency, it was found that the maximum/optimum contents of octadecane and eicosane microcapsules were about 40 wt%. By the dynamic thermal performance test, it was found that the maximum buffering levels of Nylon fabrics coated with hexadecane, octadecane, and eicosane microcapsules were about −2.4/+2.9°C, −3.6/+3.6°C and −4.0/+4.7°C, respectively.