Studies on Myristyl Alcohol based microencapsulated phase change material for thermal energy storage applications

In this paper, a novel Myristyl Alcohol (MAL) phase change material (PCM) microencapsulated with calcium carbonate (CaCO3) shell through a self-assembly process is developed. Despite having strong thermal energy storage capabilities, pure MAL PCM has low thermal conductivity and phase change leakage issues, which limit its usefulness for thermal energy storage applications. To avoid leakage and improve thermal conductivity, pure MAL PCM is encapsulated with a CaCO3 shell for different core/shell mass ratios. The morphology, chemical structure, and crystalline structure of the microencapsulated phase change material (MAL-MEPCM) samples are analyzed by the SEM, FTIR, and XRD. The SEM morphology reveals that the generated microcapsules have spherical, needle-shaped, and floral forms. The DSC thermograms reveal the latent heat (melting) values of 223.36 and 155.40 J/g with an encapsulation efficiency of 69.42% for pure MAL PCM and MAL-MEPCM, the maximum core/shell mass ratio. The TGA thermograms confirm good thermal stability. Even after 200 thermal cycles, the samples have consistent chemical stability and phase change properties, as evidenced by FTIR and DSC results. The prepared MAL-MEPCM samples have higher thermal conductivity than the pure MAL PCM and thus enhance thermal energy storage performance.