Differential scanning calorimetry based evaluation of 3D printed PLA for phase change materials encapsulation or as container material of heat storage tanks

Abstract Three-D printed PLA (polylactid acid) was tested by means of differential scanning calorimetry after contact with commercially available organic phase change materials (PCMs) in order to be evaluated as an encapsulation or tank material in thermal storage systems. For a period of 40 days contact of 3D printed PLA specimens with two organic PCMs (A44 and A58) in liquid state, promising results were collected. In particular, insignificant mass uptake up to 0.012%/cm 2 for the case of A44 and 0.045%/cm 2 for A58 was observed. At the same time PLA crystallinity as calculated by differential scanning calorimetry data was found to improve over working time. These initial results therefore support the concept of structure on-demand encapsulation design by PLA 3D printing additive manufacturing of heat storage tanks for latent heat utilization of phase change materials.