Preparation of silica microspheres encapsulating phase-change material by sol-gel method in O/W emulsion

Abstract

Spherical silica microcapsules containing phase-change material (PCM) were prepared by the sol-gel method in O/W emulsion. This is the first time that inorganic encapsulation of PCM with core/shell structure has been studied. The results of this synthesis revealed that micron size (4 ∼ 8 µm) silica microspheres encapsulating n-pentadecane can be successfully created from acidic solutions ([H⁺] ≥ 1.44 N) by using cationic surfactants as the emulsifiers. The identification of the mechanisms for the formation of silica shell at the oil–water interface indicates that it should be the charge-controlled mechanism through S⁺X⁻I⁺ (positively charged surfactant-halide ion-positively charged silica species) electrostatic interactions or the reaction rates-controlled mechanism working on cationic emulsifiers.

Key Words: :

• Microencapsulation
• phase-change material
• emulsion
• sol-gel method
• core-shell microsphere