Thermal performance of nanoencapsulated phase change material in high molecular weight polystyrene

Abstract A novel nanoencapsulation of n-hexadecane in high molecular weight polystyrene nanoparticles for thermal energy storage was carried out by miniemulsion polymerization using an iron-containing imidazolium-based ionic liquid (IL) as catalyst. The particle size, morphology, molecular weight, and thermal performance of nanoparticles containing the phase change material (PCM) were measured by dynamic light scattering, transmission electron microscopy, gel permeation chromatography, and differential scanning calorimetry, respectively. The nanoparticles were regular spherical, with narrow size distribution and particle size ranged from 138 nm to 158 nm. The enthalpy of melting for the nanoencapsulated PCM increased from 19 J/g to 72 J/g, as the content of n-hexadecane used increased from 20 wt% to 50 wt%. In addition, the nanoparticles showed thermal reversibility after 100 thermal cycles. The high molecular weights of the polymer, up to 1800 kDa, that could be reached with this IL may have contributed positively to this thermal behavior.