Synthesis of bifunctional nanoencapsulated phase change materials with nano‐TiO₂ modified polyacrylate shell for thermal energy storage and ultraviolet absorption

Abstract

A novel kind of bifunctional nanoencapsulated phase change material with thermal energy storage and ultraviolet absorption functions was successfully prepared through surfactant‐free emulsion polymerization with reactive emulsifiers. These nanocapsules consisted of n‐octadecane and n‐butyl stearate as binary core materials and polyacrylate supplemented with titanium dioxide nanoparticles (nano‐TiO2) as hybrid shell materials. The experimental results show that the monomer conversion and thermal conductivity increased and the particle size and distribution decreased with increase in nano‐TiO2 content when the nano‐TiO2 dosage was below 0.2 wt%. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and XRD confirmed that the binary phase change materials were well encapsulated inside the polyacrylate‐TiO2 hybrid shell and nano‐TiO2 was also successfully crosslinked in the nanocapsules. TEM demonstrated that the synthesized nanocapsules exhibited a regular spherical profile and a well‐defined core–shell structure with diameter ranging from 70 to 100 nm. In addition, the results obtained from DSC, TGA and UV–visible spectrophotometry showed that the as‐prepared nanocapsules had good thermal storage capacity, thermal stability and ultraviolet absorption properties. It can be considered that the resultant nanoencapsulated phase change materials with polyacrylate‐TiO2 hybrid shell may have high feasibility and hold good promise in the applications of intelligent thermoregulation fabrics. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry

Research progress on preparation, characterization, and application of nanoparticle‐based microencapsulated phase change materials

“…Zhou et al 48 selected polyacrylate modified with nano‐TiO 2 to encapsulate n ‐octadecane and n ‐butyl stearate via surfactant‐free emulsion polymerization method. During the preparation process, nano‐TiO 2 particles were not only used as Pickering emulsion stabilizer but also closely related to improve the heat storage and release capacity of MPCMs.…”

Encapsulation methods for phase change materials – A critical review

“…Zhou et al [182] synthesized microcapsules that could absorb UV radiation by incorporating TiO 2 within the polyacrylate shell. They found that, when the nanoparticle content, monomer conversion and thermal conductivity increases, and particle size and its distribution decreased when the content is below 0.2 wt%.…”

Chemical and physical incorporation of bio-molecules into wood materials for energy storage

“…Recently, new multifunctional, phase changing nano-capsules were investigated for thermal management and storage systems to improve the phase change performance of the existing systems. Zhou et al [88] reported the use of n-octadecane and n-butyl stearate as binary core PCM and polyacrylate supplemented with titanium dioxide nanoparticles as hybrid shell material with a high latent heat storage performance and an encapsulated efficiency of 61.5%. The study reported that the nano-capsules possessed good thermal stability and ultraviolet absorption properties due to a combination of a compact polyacrylate-TiO2 hybrid shell.…”