Cryogenic conditioning of microencapsulated phase change material for thermal energy storage

Microencapsulation is a viable technique to protect and retain the properties of phase change materials (PCMs) that are used in thermal energy storage (TES) applications. In this study, an organic ester as a phase change material was microencapsulated using melamine–formaldehyde as the shell material. This microencapsulated PCM (MPCM) was examined with cyclic cryogenic treatment and combined cyclic cryogenic heat treatment processes. The surface morphology studies showed that the shell surfaces had no distortions or roughness after cryogenic treatment. The cryogenically conditioned microcapsules exhibited diffraction peak intensity shifts and crystal structure changes. The onset of melting for the nonconditioned and conditioned microcapsules were measured to be 8.56–9.56 °C, respectively. Furthermore, after undergoing the cryogenic and heat treatment processes, the PCM microcapsules had appreciable latent heat capacities of 39.8 kJ/kg and 60.7 kJ/kg, respectively. Additionally, the microcapsules were found to have good chemical stability after the cryogenic treatment. In addition, the cryogenically conditioned microcapsules were found to be thermally stable up to 128.9 °C, whereas the nonconditioned microcapsules were stable up to 101.9 °C. Based on the test results, it is obvious that the cryogenically conditioned microcapsules exhibited good thermal properties and are very desirable for cool thermal energy storage applications.