Microencapsulated Phase Change Materials in Solar-Thermal Conversion Systems: Understanding Geometry-Dependent Heating Efficiency and System Reliability



Zheng, Zhaoliang ORCID: 0000-0001-6741-6148, Chang, Zhuo, Xu, Guang-Kui, McBride, Fiona ORCID: 0000-0003-2985-3173, Ho, Alexandra, Zhuola, Zhuola, Michailidis, Marios ORCID: 0000-0001-8845-2375, Li, Wei, Raval, Rasmita, Akhtar, Riaz ORCID: 0000-0002-7963-6874
et al (show 1 more authors) (2017) Microencapsulated Phase Change Materials in Solar-Thermal Conversion Systems: Understanding Geometry-Dependent Heating Efficiency and System Reliability. ACS Nano, 11 (1). pp. 721-729.

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Abstract

The performance of solar-thermal conversion systems can be improved by incorporation of nanocarbon-stabilized microencapsulated phase change materials (MPCMs). The geometry of MPCMs in the microcapsules plays an important role for improving their heating efficiency and reliability. Yet few efforts have been made to critically examine the formation mechanism of different geometries and their effect on MPCMs-shell interaction. Herein, through changing the cooling rate of original emulsions, we acquire MPCMs within the nanocarbon microcapsules with a hollow structure of MPCMs (h-MPCMs) or solid PCM core particles (s-MPCMs). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy reveals that the capsule shell of the h-MPCMs is enriched with nanocarbons and has a greater MPCMs-shell interaction compared to s-MPCMs. This results in the h-MPCMs being more stable and having greater heat diffusivity within and above the phase transition range than the s-MPCMs do. The geometry-dependent heating efficiency and system stability may have important and general implications for the fundamental understanding of microencapsulation and wider breadth of heating generating systems.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: PF-QNM, emulsification, encapsulation ratio, microencapsulation, nanocarbons, phase change materials, solar-thermal conversion
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 10 Jan 2017 10:45
Last Modified: 19 Jan 2023 07:20
DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.6b07126
Related URLs:
URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3005137