Microencapsulation of stearic acid with polymethylmethacrylate using iron (III) chloride as photo-initiator for thermal energy storage

Abstract

Abstract Aiming to identify the validity of fabricating microencapsulated phase change material (PCM) with polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) by ultraviolet curing emulsion polymerization method using iron (III) chloride as photoinitiator, SA/PMMA microcapsules were prepared and various techniques were employed to determine the ignition mechanism, structural characteristics and thermal properties of the composite. The results shown that the microcapsules containing SA with maximum percentage of 52.20 wt% formed by radical mechanism and only physical interactions existed in the components both in the prepared process and subsequent use. The phase change temperatures and latent heats of the microencapsulated SA were measured as 55.3 °C and 102.1 J·g − 1 for melting, and 48.8 °C and 102.8 J·g − 1 for freezing, respectively. Thermal gravimetric analysis revealed that SA/PMMA has good thermal durability in working temperature range. The results of accelerated thermal cycling test are all shown that the SA/PMMA have excellent thermal reliability and chemical stability although they were subjected 1000 melting/freezing cycles. In summary, the comparable thermal storage ability and good thermal reliability facilitated SA/PMMA to be considered as a viable candidate for thermal energy storage. The successful fabrication of SA/PMMA capsules indicates that ferric chloride is a prominent candidate for synthesizing PMMA containing PCM composite.