Quasi-monodispersed nanocapsules with form stability at high temperature and under shear force for thermal energy storage

Abstract Nanoencapsulated phase change materials (NPCMs) have attracted much attentions during the past decades due to their large potential application in the sectors of solar energy harvesting, waste heat recovery, and smart buildings and fibers. However, it is still a big challenge to obtain form-stable NPCMs without leakage at high temperature (e.g. 180 ℃) and under external shear force. Form-stability investigations of almost of the reported NPCMs focus on the temperature range up to 100 ℃, which cannot satisfy the thermal processing requirements (140–200 ℃ under shear force) of commonly available thermoplastics like poly(vinyl chloride) and poly(lactic acid). We herein for the first time demonstrate a facile method to prepare a series of novel room temperature NPCMs with the latent heat up to 116.1 J g−1 and fabulous form-stability even if the surrounding temperature approximates 180 ℃ under an external shear force of 101.9 kN m−2. To this aim, quasi-monodispersed NPCMs with the average size less than 120 nm were prepared, wherein dodecanol and in-situ cross-linked acrylate copolymers were used as the heat storage core and the supramolecular lock shell layer of the NPCMs, respectively. Storage reliability, morphology, phase change behaviors, and form-stability at different conditions of the resulting NPCMs were extensively evaluated. The fabricated NPCMs exhibit outstanding monodispersity and form-stability at high temperature and under shear force, and probably opens a new avenue to develop functional thermoplastic and/or thermosetting composites for the next generation of smart building, furniture, and decoration materials with a promising heat energy storage and release ability.