Preparation and characterization of novel microencapsulated phase change materials with SiO2/FeOOH as the shell for heat energy storage and photocatalysis

Abstract A novel microencapsulated phase change material (paraffin@SiO2/FeOOH) was prepared by an interfacial polycondensation method. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) results revealed that the microcapsules were regular spherical with a diameter of 2 ∼ 5 µm. The DSC analysis results showed that the melting point and latent heat of the paraffin@SiO2/FeOOH microcapsules were 26.10 °C and 104.44 J/g, encapsulation rate of the paraffin@SiO2/FeOOH microcapsules was 49.68%. As the TGA and photo-thermal performance measurements showed, inorganic shell material not only effectively improves thermal stability of phase change microcapsules, but also exhibited a certainly photo-thermal conversion property. Additionally, the experimental results of photocatalytic degradation of MB (Methylene blue) showed that paraffin@SiO2/FeOOH microcapsules have high photocatalytic activity against organic dyes under natural light. The developed materials can be applied to the fields of residential building temperature adjustment materials and the degradation of organic pollutants.