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School of Electrical and Power Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221116, China
Keywords: Phase change materials play a vital role in the field of thermal management field, in particular for the micro-
Thermal management encapsulated protocols owing to its large specific area, enhanced thermal stability and controlled volume var-
Phase change materials iation. However, its sophisticated preparation process associated with complex chemical or physical events still
Microcapsules heavily hinders the advance application. Herein, microencapsulation of phase change materials through an facile
Polymerization
in-situ copolymerization of N-(tert-butyl)acrylamide, divinylbenzene and para-quaternary ammonium functio-
Solid-liquid phase change
nalized styrene has been studied. The ratio of core/shell, oil/water ratio and the different monomers were
investigated towards the encapsulation efficiency and morphology of the as prepared microcapsules. Chemical
composition, morphology of the microcapsules were analyzed by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray
diffraction instrument, thermal gravimetric analysis, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron
microscopy. Thermo-physical characteristics, such as leakage-proof performance, latent heat capacity and phase
change temperature were also studied. This study, for the first time, using a quaternary ammonium functio-
nalized styrene based amphipathic monomer, which was designed to be able to stay at the interface of oil and
water, as one of the shell materials with the purpose of attaining a high encapsulation rate. As a result, the
encapsulation efficiency of our protocol can achieve to 84.50% without observation of any PCMs leakage.
Additionally, it was noteworthy that this study offers a facile way to construct PCMs microcapsule, which only
needs a simple and rough mixing and filtration, thanks to the self-assembly characteristic of this amphipathic
monomer.
⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: raozhonghao@cumt.edu.cn (Z. Rao).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icheatmasstransfer.2020.104876
Fig. 1. (a) Schematic illustration of in-situ polymerization based MEPCM, (b) digital photo of each reaction mixture at different reaction time and the final product.
Table 1
Optimization of PCMs capsule preparation parameters.a,b
a
: Unless otherwise noted, A: 1.524 g, C: 0.312 g, H2O: 16 mL, PVA: 96 mg, AIBN: 96 mg, reaction temperature: 80 °C, reaction time: 10 h.
b
NO = not obtained.
sophisticated preparation method since it associates with many che- importantly, it can be used in the preparation of latent heat functionally
mical and interface issues. For example, the amount of starting mate- fluid (LHFT), which has been considered as one of the most advanced
rials, stirring speed and mass ratio of core/shell all impact the final fluids that bearing superior heat transfer performance [37,38]. More-
morphology and encapsulation of capsules, more importantly, it gen- over, MEPCM have been proven to be feasible towards the widely found
erally difficult to predict the tendency and the role upon the prepara- thermal energy storage as well as various thermal management appli-
tion method [33]. Therefore, a facile method for the PCMs shape-sta- cations owing to its large specific area, enhanced thermal stability,
bilization, in particular for the macro or micro capsules protocol, is still controlled volume variation and protection against degradation during
highly in demand. the heat uptake/release process, neat encapsulation feature and well-
Despite the tedious preparation procedure, the study upon the designed morphology. At present, the preparation of MEPCM mainly
preparation of MEPCM, heat transfer and flow characteristics is a hot relies on the interface sol-gel method in which a surfactant aided micro-
research topic that has been paid ample attention [34–36]. More interface effect is the key to the success of the formation of micro-
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C. Liu, et al. International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 118 (2020) 104876
Table 2 the lab and its detail according to a literature reported elsewhere [44].
Details of DSC curves of paraffin and each PCMs capsule. Unless otherwise noted, all reagents were obtained from commercial
Melting process Freezing process suppliers and used without further purification.
FT-IR spectra were recorded using a Bruker VERTEX 70 FT-IR as KBr
Sample Onset(°C) Peak(°C) ΔHm(J/g) Onset(°C) Peak(°C) ΔHm(°C) discs. Thermal gravimetric analysis (TG) was carried out on a TA SDT
Q600 instrument under a nitrogen atmosphere by heating from room
Paraffin 57.84 63.66 198.80 56.20 50.73 185.75
S1 59.33 60.65 0.55 56.21 55.03 0.45 temperature to 600 °C at a rate of 10 °C min−1. Differential scanning
S2 59.80 61.71 17.76 56.78 54.19 12.14 calorimetry (DSC) was performed in a TA Q200 at a heating (or cooling)
S3 60.01 61.65 15.05 57.53 56.14 14.46 rate of 5 °C min−1 under a nitrogen atmosphere. All the samples were
S4 60.00 62.44 29.31 57.46 55.88 27.03 heated to 85 °C, then cooled to 20 °C and equilibrated for 10 min. X-ray
S5 59.98 64.11 117.76 57.86 54.07 116.38
diffraction (XRD) patterns were recorded on a diffractometer (Smartlab,
S6 59.57 62.86 88.54 57.67 55.72 84.99
S7 59.96 63.25 83.05 57.30 55.40 79.88 Rigaku) with Ni-filtered CuK α radiation (k = 0.154 nm) at a tube
S8 59.96 62.98 80.52 57.19 55.12 76.60 current of 30 mA and a generator voltage of 40 kV. Scanning was
S9 59.83 63.02 114.57 57.21 55.22 110.91 performed at a speed of 8°min−1, from 0 to 80° of 2θ. Scanning electron
S10 59.70 65.09 139.00 57.28 51.82 138.17
microscopy (SEM) images were recorded using a MAIA3 TESCAN field-
S11 59.33 61.87 52.35 57.04 54.77 51.37
S12 60.25 65.01 95.12 57.30 53.27 93.48
emission scanning electron microscope operating at 5 kV. Transmission
electron microscopy (TEM) were recorded using a FEI Tecnai G2 F20.
environment and the final capsules [39,40]. Therefore, the emulsion of 2.1. Preparation of MEPCM
an oil/water biphasic system and the down-stream in-situ shell forma-
tion is crucial for its holding rate and efficiency [41]. Consequently, the The reaction was carried out in a 100 mL round bottom flask.
shell and core materials should exhibit distinct characteristics to the Paraffin (4.8 g), monomer A (1.524 g), AIBN (96 mg) and monomer B
surrounding solvent system, and the precursors of shell materials are (211.5 mg) were put into flask in turn and dissolved in toluene (8 mL)
recommended to stay at the interface of core and solvent. Traditional and then added 0.6 wt% PVA aqueous solution (16 mL) into flask and
process for microencapsulated PCMs in in-situ polymerization method finally dropped divinylbenzene (312 mg) after removing the stabilizer
usually involves preparation of pre-polymer, emulsion, shell formation by filtering through asbestos and Al2O3 powder. The mixture was al-
steps and pH adjusting, which suffer from the tedious preparation lowed to stir for 10 h at a rate of 600 r/min and in the 80 °C oil bath
procedure and sophisticated condition control, and seems a little la- under a nitrogen atmosphere. After reaction, the material was collected
borious, time consuming and low encapsulation efficiency. For ex- by filtration and centrifugation using methanol for 3 times and petro-
ample, Alay et al. [34] used poly(methylmethacrylate-co-glycidyl me- leum ether for 2 times to remove the extra paraffin and dry in a vacuum
thacrylate) to encapsulate n-hexadecane through an in-situ oven at 60 °C for 24 h to a constant weight. The sample S5 (3.0 g) was
polymerization method, in which the encapsulation efficiency was thus obtained as a white powder.
62.46%. Besides, polycarbonate [35], poly(methyl methacrylate) [36],
and melamine urea formaldehyde [37] were also reported to be capable 2.2. Calculation paraffin encapsulation efficiency
of using as shell materials and their encapsulation efficiency was
62.46%, 52.00%, 60.70%, 59.80%, respectively. In this paper, the encapsulation efficiency of paraffin in MEPCM can
Generally speaking, for the polymerization involved MEPCM pre- be calculated from the following equation according to a literature
paration methods, a surfactant was generally required for the formation reported elsewhere [38]:
of well dispersed oil droplets and ensures the downstream PCMs en- Encapsulation efficiency (%) =
Hcapsule
× 100%.
para / monomer
capsulation, shell formation process, which thus delivered the good Hpara
para / monomer + 1
morphological capsules [42,43]. Out of this consideration, we envi- where para/monomer is the mass ratio of paraffin and monomer,
sioned that an amphipathic monomer that could uneventfully exist at ∆Hpara and ∆Hcapsule are the latent heat of paraffin and microcapsules,
the interface of core and surrounding solvent system would not only be respectively.
beneficial to the highly efficient PCMs encapsulation, but also led to the Uncertainty analysis is taken into account. Due to the uncertainty of
elimination of the addition of extra surfactant, which would rationally the data acquisition device and thermocouples, the temperature mea-
decline the complexity of the preparation process. In this work, to the surement error range for each measuring point is ± 0.5 °C. The thermal
best of our knowledge, amphipathic quaternary ammonium functio- conductivity analyzer has an accuracy of ± 3% at a working tempera-
nalized monomers, which could stably exist at the interface of the oil/ ture from −200 to 150 °C. DSC has an accuracy of ± 0.01 °C and ±
water interface, were firstly adopted as the core materials to prepare an 0.1% with respect to temperature and enthalpy respectively at a
organic phase change material cored MEPCM. It is worth noting that working temperature from −180 to 725 °C.
this preparation method was quite simple that the pre-emulsion and pH
adjusting steps are not necessary, more importantly, the encapsulation 3. Results and discussion
efficiency can attain to 84.50% with a promising sphere morphology
and a thermal stability. Initially, the MEPCM were prepared through a one-pot reaction
starting from monomer A, B and C in the presence of paraffin wax with
the aid of radical initiator azodiisobutyronitrile (AIBN). Compared to
2. Experimental section the conventional MEPCM preparation procedure, this method was quite
simple that it was mainly constituted by the magnetic stirring and fil-
Paraffin (the melting temperature is 60 °C) was purchased from tration process without any pretreatment and extra emulsion steps.
Joule wax Co. Ltd. Shanghai, China. Toluene was purchased from (Fig. 1a). As it is shown in Fig. 1b, the starting mixture was able to be
National Medicines Corporation Ltd. China. N-tert-butylacrylamide blended evenly owing to the good solubility for the participated starting
(monomer A) and divinylbenzene (monomer C) were obtained from materials. Some fine particles was gradually generated after a magnetic
Tokyo Chemical industry Co., Ltd. (TCI), Japan. Azodiisobutyronitrile stirring at an 80 °C. The final product will be precipitated completely
(AIBN), polyvinyl alcohol (n = 1788), methanol, petroleum ether and from the reaction system after the completion of this water/oil medi-
Al2O3 powder were purchased from Titan Scientific Co. Ltd. Shanghai, ated polymerization reaction, and it can be facilely collected by filtra-
China. The quaternary ammonium salt (monomer B) was synthesized in tion, wash and dry.
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Fig. 2. SEM images of the MEPCM obtained under different reaction conditions.
In order to gain a PCMs capsule with good performance in terms of toluene: H2O = 0.5: 1 biphasic solvent system. After knowing the im-
encapsulation efficiency, some preparation parameters were subjected pact of core/shell ratio, the effect of monomer B on encapsulation ef-
to optimization. To facilitate the optimization process, at the beginning, ficiency was then considered. Monomer B plays a key role to adjust the
the quantity of the amide functional group containing monomer A was compatibility of the final shell polymer as it bearing a quaternary specie
fixed at 1.524 g, and the variant was firstly chosen to be the ratio of on its skeleton, hence, its quantity will inevitably give rise to perfor-
core and shell. As it is shown in Table 1, the encapsulation efficiency mance of the final MEPCM. As it is displayed in Table 1, the en-
gradually rises by the increment of the amount of paraffin wax, but capsulation efficiency drastically drops to 58.67% when halved the
there is also a limitation since it shows a decreasing trend when 5.6 g of dose of monomer B. To our surprised, the encapsulation efficiency
paraffin wax was used. Based on these results, we can get a conclusion shows a decreasing trend when a rising dose of monomer B, and it is
that the presence of paraffin does not interrupt on the occurrence of the increased to 84.74% when a double dose of monomer B was used.
in-situ biphasic polymerization in a certain range, and the encapsulation Considering the complexity of this whole polymerization process which
efficiency can attain to maximum to 84.50% under a condition of associates with interfacial and polymerized chemistry, this irregular
1.524 g monomer A, 0.211 g monomer B, 0.312 g monomer C, in a phenomenon is also in a reasonable range. Moreover, the solvent
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Fig. 3. (a) TGA curves of each monomer and polymer, (b) TGA curves of par-
affin and the MEPCM.
system was investigated (S10–12), it is found that neither too much nor
less amount of toluene could afford a good encapsulation efficiency,
furthermore, the MEPCM cannot be obtained if the reaction proceeded
in a completely aqueous solution, which further evidenced the sig-
nificance of toluene counterpart. (See Table 2.)
After getting the optimized MEPCM preparation condition in terms
of encapsulation efficiency, morphology and chemical composition of
this MEPCM were submitted to analysis. Firstly, SEM images of capsules
samples with respect to varies preparation conditions were shown in
Fig. 2, almost no spherical structure can be found in the case of S1 that Fig. 4. (a) FTIR spectra of each monomer and polymer, (b) FTIR spectra of
demonstrates the failure of encapsulation of paraffin, the amorphous paraffin and the MEPCM.
structure of sample can be assigned to the polymer. The sphere gra-
dually appeared in S2 with a small diameter, but it distributes unevenly using a different dose of toluene, shows a good spherical shape and
from the SEM image and some of them are not completely sphere- smooth external surface also proves the necessity of toluene in this
shaped in appearance and displays a cluster structure. The cluster type system. In the meantime, water acts a key role in the formation of
structure can be also observed in S3 and S4, on the other hand, the capsule since the premise of capsule formation, oil/water interface
external surface of S3 exhibits a rough characteristic that demonstrates would not be formed in the absence of a water phase.
the unsatisfactory encapsulation efficiency. While, the morphology of Besides the morphology study regarding the MEPCM, chemical
MEPCM turns to be a good sphere in the case of S5, and the cluster of composition was also subjected to investigation. To verify the success of
each capsule decreases drastically, which shows a good accordance polymerization among the monomers, TGA analysis with respect to
with the encapsulation efficiency calculated from the latent heat. In each monomer and polymer was firstly tested. As it is shown in Fig. 3a,
addition, we can find that diameter of the MEPCM S5 mainly lies in the the plot of monomer A exhibits a marked weight loss at 150–200 °C due
range of 2–3 μm and distributes uniformly without broken particles. to the structure decomposition. There are two significant weight loss in
According to SEM images, S6-S9 also displays a relatively good sphe- the case of monomer B that appeared in 200–250 °C and 350–450 °C
rical shape, it is evidenced that our amphipathic monomer participated respectively. This is probably attributed to the degradation of qua-
in-situ polymerization protocol features a good toleration regarding the ternary ammonium species at a relatively lower temperature range and
preparation condition. Furthermore, no obvious spherical capsule can latter weight loss can be explained by the main structure decomposi-
be observed from the SEM image of S10, which demonstrates the failure tion. Compared with each monomer, polymer shows a good thermal
of the PCMs encapsulation and the importance of the organic phase in stability that the main weigh loss occurs at a temperature range from
this reaction system. Furthermore, S11 and S12, which were prepared 350 to 450 °C and no significant weight loss can be found at the
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