Preparation and Performance of n-Dodecane Microencapsulated Phase Change Cold Storage Materials

Abstract

Cold chain transportation is currently a hot research topic. Since the traditional refrigeration methods lead to the consumption of large amounts of energy, the search for new energy storage materials is a major trend. In the present contribution, n-dodecane/PMMA microencapsulated phase change materials were prepared by suspension polymerization for ice-temperature cold chain transportation and their preparation parameters were explored using the encapsulation ratio as optimization indicator. The results show that the n-dodecane-containing microcapsules have a maximum encapsulation ratio of 93.2% when using a core-to-wall ratio of 3:1, 5% of emulsifier, 30% of crosslinker, and 2000 rpm of emulsification speed. The phase transition temperature and enthalpy are −2°C and 195.9 kJ/kg, respectively. The microcapsules prepared with the optimized process parameters have good microscopic morphology, high energy storage efficiency, uniform particle size and good thermal stability, making them ideal materials for cold chain transportation.