Inclusion of Phase-Change Materials in Submicron Silica Capsules Using a Surfactant-Free Emulsion Approachстатья
Статья опубликована в высокорейтинговом журнале
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Статья опубликована в журнале из списка Web of Science и/или Scopus
Дата последнего поиска статьи во внешних источниках: 24 октября 2018 г.
Аннотация:Microencapsulation of phase change materials is of great importance for thermal energy storage applications. In this work we report on a facile approach to enclosing paraffin in mechanically strong submicron silica capsules without the addition of any classical organic surfactants. A liquid silica precursor polymer, hyperbranched polyethoxysiloxane (PEOS), is used as both silica source and stabilizer of oil-in-water emulsions due to its hydrolysis-induced interfacial activity. Hydrophobic paraffin is microencapsulated in silica with quantitative efficiency simply by emulsifying the mixture of molten paraffin and PEOS in water under ultrasonication or high-shear homogenization. The size of the capsules can be controlled by emulsification energy and rate of subsequent stirring. The silica shell, whose thickness can be easily tuned by varying the paraffin to PEOS ratio, acts as an effective barrier layer retarding significantly the evaporation of enclosed substances; meanwhile the microencapsulated paraffin maintains the excellent phase change performance. This technique offers a low-cost, highly scalable and environmentally friendly process for microencapsulation of paraffin phase change materials.