Micro/nanoencapsulation of dimethyl adipate with melamine formaldehyde shell as phase change material slurries for cool thermal energy storage
Girish Trivedi, R. Parameshwaran
Abstract
The present study reports the encapsulation of dimethyl adipate into a polymer shell using in-situ polymerisation. Surface morphology, crystal structure, chemical stability, and thermal properties are characterised using various analytical methods and experimentally investigated. The surface morphology has shown excellent sphericity with a mean particle diameter of 900 nm. The measured enthalpy was 80.2 J/g, with the onset and peak melting temperatures are 6.4 °C and 9.6 °C, respectively. The calculated specific heat capacities of encapsulated dimethyl adipate are around 1.7 J/g.K and 2.3 J/g.K for solid and liquid states, respectively. Furthermore, thermal cycling performance was obtained as 95.3% after 100 thermal cycles. These capsules dispersed into the base fluid (deionized double distilled water) in appropriate proportions for the preparation of micro/nanoencapsulated phase change material slurries (MNPCMS). The prepared slurries have shown a marginal increase in viscosity compared to the base fluid. Therefore, the test results signified that the prepared MNPCMS can be considered as a potential candidate for cool thermal energy storage applications.