Synthesis and characterization of microencapsulated methyl laurate with polyurethane shell materials via interfacial polymerization in Pickering emulsions

• Polyurethane microencapsulated methyl laurate was prepared by Pickering emulsion polymerization. • The MEPCMs exhibited superior thermal cycling stability and storage stability. • The MEPCMs showed high latent heat storage capacity. Microencapsulated methyl laurate-based phase change materials (MEPCMs) with polyurethane shell materials was synthesized through Pickering emulsion polymerization. The synthesized MEPCMs showed core-shell structure, optically transparency and smooth surface. Moreover, the shell thickness was roughly uniform with 8∼10 μm and the size of MEPCMs was mainly distributed in the range of 150∼350 μm. And the thermal results indicated that the obtained MEPCMs exhibit excellent thermal reliability, high latent heat storage capacity and superior thermal cycling stability. The melting and freezing enthalpies of MEPCMs were as high as 147.71 J/g and 143.36 J/g, respectively, accompanied with 83.34 % of encapsulation efficiency. Furthermore, we also detected the chemical structure of MEPCMs before and after experiencing heating-cooling cycles test, indicating that these MEPCMs showed good chemical stability. Additionally, the obtained MEPCMs showed good storage stability. Our study demonstrated that Pickering emulsion polymerization could be applied to fabricate MEPCMs with PU shell materials.