The microencapsulated phase change material (PCM) slurry is a kind of mixture with the PCM microcapsule particles and water. The actual PCM in the microcapsule is composed of several kinds of paraffin waxes (mainly nonadecane), and the membrane is a type of melamine resin. This study is focused on preparation, characterization, and thermal properties of the microencapsulated (PCM) slurry. The microencapsulated PCM particles are prepared by in-situ polymerization method. Four different levels of mass concentration Cm of the PCM will be used such as Cm=10%, 20%, 30% and 40%, respectively. The diameter of the particles is distributed in the range of 0µm~4.5µm, and most (61%) of them occur in the range of 0.5µm~1.5µm. The average volumetric diameter of the PCM microcapsule particle is about 0.78µm. And the average membrane thickness is about 11nm.Thermal properties of the microencapsulated PCM slurry are determined using differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). From DSC analysis, the melting and freezing temperatures and the latent heats of Cm=30% are measured as 38°C and 25°C, and 37.9 kJ/kg, respectively. The rheological properties are measured by a rotating cylinder type of rheometer, which the slurry shows the pseudo plastic non-Newtonian fluid behavior with the power-law fluid index n.
Preparation and thermal properties of mesoporous silica/phenolic resin nanocomposites via in situ polymerization