Texto completo

Activar la navegación de términos de búsqueda

© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Resumen

Microencapsulation of phase change materials (PCMs) remain a suitable option within building materials, as they contribute to the thermal mass and provide an energy buffer, an added benefit. This paper presents a novel method for the rapid fabrication of microencapsulated phase change materials (PCMs) at ambient conditions in a perfluoroalkoxy (PFA) coiled tube ultraviolet (UV) reactor. The objective of this study was to optimize key parameters such as the product yield and quality of the as-prepared microcapsules. Rubitherm® RT-21™ PCM was microencapsulated within shells of poly-methyl-methacrylate (PMMA) through a suspension emulsion polymerization approach, where the crosslinking of polymers was driven by UV radiations with an appropriate photoinitiator. The characteristics of the resulting PCM microcapsules were found to be affected by the volumetric flow rate of the emulsion inside the coiled tube reactor. Higher volumetric flow rates led to higher PCM contents and higher microencapsulation efficiency, resulting in an average particle size of 6.5 µm. Furthermore, the effect of curing time on the PCM microcapsule properties was investigated. The optimum encapsulation yield, conversion, efficiency and PCM content were observed after 10 min of polymerization time. The thermal analysis indicated that the developed process had an efficiency of 85.8%, and the capsules were characterized with excellent thermal properties. Compared to the conventional thermal microencapsulation processes, the use of a coiled tube UV reactor with an appropriate photoinitiator enables the encapsulation of heat-sensitive PCMs at ambient conditions, and reduces the microencapsulation time dramatically. As a result, this novel microencapsulation approach can lead to a wider scope of PCM encapsulation and enable rapid, continuous and potentially large-scale industrial production of PCM microcapsules with low energy consumption.

Detalles

Título
A Rapid Method for Low Temperature Microencapsulation of Phase Change Materials (PCMs) Using a Coiled Tube Ultraviolet Reactor
Autor
Ansari, Jawaad A 1 ; Al-Shannaq, Refat 1 ; Kurdi, Jamal 2 ; Al-Muhtaseb, Shaheen A 3   Logo VIAFID ORCID  ; Ikutegbe, Charles A 1   Logo VIAFID ORCID  ; Farid, Mohammed M 1   Logo VIAFID ORCID 

 Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand; jans856@aucklanduni.ac.nz (J.A.A.); r.alshannaq@auckland.ac.nz (R.A.-S.); ciku619@aucklanduni.ac.nz (C.A.I.) 
 Engineering Technology-Chemical Processing, College of the North Atlantic-Qatar, Doha P.O. Box 24449, Qatar; jamal.kurdi@cna-qatar.edu.qa 
 Department of Chemical Engineering, Qatar University, Doha P.O. Box 2713, Qatar; s.almuhtaseb@qu.edu.qa 
Primera página
7867
Año de publicación
2021
Fecha de publicación
2021
Editorial
MDPI AG
e-ISSN
19961073
Tipo de fuente
Revista científica
Idioma de la publicación
English
ID del documento de ProQuest
2608131379
Copyright
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.