Preparation and Thermal Properties of Microencapsulated Phase Change Material for Enhancing Fluid Flow Heat Transfer

Microencapsulated phase change material (MEPCM) is formed by packing PCM into a microcapsule with a solid but flexible shell. MEPCM can be used to enhance liquid cooling performance considerably. In this paper, experiments on the preparation of MEPCM with a double-layered shell have been conducted. An in-situ polymerization microencapsulation process was used to prepare the MEPCM with melamine resin as the shell material and n-Docosane (C22H46) as the core material. Interesting parameters like the size of the prepared MEPCM, the core mass fraction in the MEPCM, and the thermal storage capability of the prepared MEPCM have been measured and analyzed. (C) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.