Flexible textiles with polypyrrole deposited phase change microcapsules for efficient photothermal energy conversion and storage

Abstract The design of flexible phase change textiles with photothermal conversion/storage performance provides a new direction for their potential applications in advanced solar energy storage. Herein, photothermal phase change microcapsules (microPCMs) were facilely prepared via surface modification of microPCMs with photothermal converter polypyrrole (PPy). A flexible photothermal phase change textile was further fabricated together with polyurethane (PU). The microPCMs coated with merely 1.91 wt% PPy exhibited high photothermal storage efficiency (up to 94.03%) under 1 solar irradiation and high melting enthalpy (231.6 J/g). Meanwhile, the microPCMs/PU composite fiber remained highly elastic (365% elongation) at a loading of 79.45 wt% microPCMs. Additionally, the photothermal phase change textile showed high cycling durability with essentially unchanged performance after 100 heating-cooling cycles. These favorable features of the composite textile grant it great potential for solar energy-related applications.