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Microencapsulated phase change material via Pickering emulsion stabilized by graphene oxide for photothermal conversion

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Abstract

In this study, Pickering suspension polymerization was used to synthesize thermally stable microencapsulated phase change materials (microPCMs) with n-eicosane as the PCM, polyurea (PUA) as the shell, and graphene oxide (GO) as the colloidal stabilizer. Accordingly, the GO-modified microPCMs (GO@PUAmPCM) prepared at different GO emulsion concentrations were investigated and compared. These microcapsules exhibited high thermal storage of about 70% (180 J/g), leakage prevention, and high solar harvesting capacity with efficient photothermal conversion efficiency (60%). GO@PUAmPCM also showed good thermal reliability, and no leakage was observed after 100 heating and cooling cycles. The process developed herein can be embraced to fabricate highly efficient and reliable PCM microcapsules for solar energy harvesting.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2232018A3-04).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Lab of Science and Technology of Eco-Textile, Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, Donghua University, Shanghai, 201620, People’s Republic of China

    Onesmus Musyoki Maithya, Xiang Li, Xueling Feng, Xiaofeng Sui & Bijia Wang

  2. Innovation Center for Textile Science and Technology of DHU, Donghua University, Shanghai, 201620, People’s Republic of China

    Onesmus Musyoki Maithya, Xiang Li, Xueling Feng, Xiaofeng Sui & Bijia Wang

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  1. Onesmus Musyoki Maithya
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  2. Xiang Li
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Correspondence to Xiaofeng Sui or Bijia Wang.

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Maithya, O.M., Li, X., Feng, X. et al. Microencapsulated phase change material via Pickering emulsion stabilized by graphene oxide for photothermal conversion. J Mater Sci 55, 7731–7742 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-020-04499-5

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