Microencapsulation of eutectic phase change materials for temperature management of the satellite electronic board

Abstract

In the present study, microencapsulation of phase change materials (PCMs) has been carried out for effectively managing the temperature of satellite electronic boards. Eutectic fatty acids are chosen as the core material, and melamine–formaldehyde is utilized as the shell material to synthesize microcapsules tailored to meet the specific operating conditions of the electronic board. The synthesized microcapsules are characterized by different analyses. The Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR) indicates no chemical interactions between the core and shell materials, ensuring the stability of the encapsulation process. Differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) measurements show the highest encapsulation ratio of 73.26% for the core–shell ratio of 2:1. The MPCMs exhibit a well-defined core–shell structure, with a spherical shape and an average diameter of 4.5 µm, as observed through scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) analyses. Furthermore, the practical application of these microencapsulated PCMs (MPCMs) in managing the temperature of the satellite electronic board is explored. At constant electric powers of 4, 6, 8, and 10 W, the microcapsules introduce significant delays in reaching the critical temperature of 55 °C, with delays of 17, 12, 11, and 4.5 min, respectively. Additionally, under pulsed electric power conditions (8 W, 10 min on/80 min off), the maximum temperature with microcapsules reaches 50 °C, while without MPCMs, it reaches a much higher 73 °C. The results of this study demonstrate that the synthesized MPCMs are an effective and promising approach for temperature management of satellite electronic boards.