Thermoregulating response of cotton fabric containing microencapsulated phase change materials

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to manufacture a thermoregulating textile fabric based on the incorporation of melamine–formaldehyde microcapsules containing a n-alkane mixture. A series of fabrics containing different mass ratios of polyurethane binder to microcapsules were prepared by a padding process. This research was conducted to clarify the influence of the amount of microcapsules and binder on the thermal response using hot guarded plate, differential scanning calorimetry and hot disc measurements. MicroPCMs were incorporated into cotton fabric by using polyurethane binder without drastically modifying air permeability property. It was observed by DSC that the main endothermic peak of these composites was shifted to higher temperatures. The results indicate that the polymeric binder plays a main role during the 30 s of a cold to warm transition allowing to delay the temperature increase. Furthermore, the thermoregulating response depends on the surface deposited weight and the mass ratio binder to microcapsules. Thus, an interesting cooling effect is found for 20 g/m 2 of binder and from 40 g/m 2 of microPCMs. And a mass ratio binder to microPCMs taken between 1:2 and 1:4 is suitable to manufacture thermoregulating textile.