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This article reports on the encapsulation of a phase change material (PCM) into a hydrophilic polymer, poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVOH), by means of electrospinning. Different strategies were carried out to improve the thermal buffering capacity and the stability of the developed structures when they were exposed to different relative humidity (RH) conditions. On the one hand, the thermal energy storage capacity of PVOH/PCM structures obtained through emulsion electrospinning was optimized by using different amounts of polyoxyethylene sorbitan monolaureate (Tween 20). Surfactant addition successfully increased the heat storage capacity of the developed structures, reaching an optimum performance at a concentration of 0.32% in weight with respect to the total emulsion weight. However, the hydrophilic nature of the developed structures made them extremely difficult to handle due to swelling with increasing RH. To avoid this issue an additional shell layer of poly(caprolactone) (PCL), was applied by coaxial electrospinning. In this case, the PVOH/PCM ratio (core) was optimized to reach the highest heat storage capacity per gram of sample and, then, a PCL solution was used as a shell material to hydrophobize the structures. The optimized coaxial electrospun structures were able to encapsulate about 82% of PCM. The use of both emulsion and coaxial electrospinning strategies are introduced here for the first time as advanced strategies to overcome application issues such as unintended migration and performance drop in the previously developed monophase materials.

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The use of latent heat storage materials using phase change materials (PCMs) is an effective way of buffering thermal fluctuations and has the advantages of high-energy storage density and the isothermal nature of the storage process. The aim of this work was to develop slabs with energy storage capacity for their application in refrigerated foods. To this end, polycaprolactone (PCL) and polystyrene (PS) were used as encapsulating matrices of a PCM, specifically RT5 (a paraffin which has a transition temperature at 5 C), by using electrohydrodynamic processing. The effect of storage temperature (4 C and 25 C) and time on the morphology and thermal characteristics of the PCL/RT5 and PS/RT5 slabs was evaluated. Results showed that RT5 can be properly encapsulated inside both polymers, although PCL provided better encapsulation efficiency. Encapsulation efficiency was affected not only by the polymer matrix but also by storage time at 25 C. The greatest encapsulation efficiency (98.6%) and optimum heat management performance was achieved for PCL/PCM slabs stored at 4 C, corresponding to materials composed of 44 wt % of PCM (core material) and 56 wt % of the PCL shell material. These temperature buffering materials can be of great interest to preserve the quality of packaged foods and to increase efficiency and reduce energy consumption in refrigeration equipment.

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