Microencapsulated heptadecane with calcium carbonate as thermal conductivity-enhanced phase change material for thermal energy storage

Heat Control Effect of Phase Change Microcapsules upon Cement Slurry Applied to Hydrate-Bearing Sediment

This study aims to develop a novel low-heat cement slurry using phase change microcapsule additives to reduce the decomposition of hydrate-bearing sediments during cementing. Microcapsules were prepared by coating mixed alkanes with polymethyl methacrylate, and lipophilic-modified graphite was incorporated to enhance the thermal conductivity of microcapsules. The effects of microcapsules upon the hydration heat, pore distribution, and compressive strength of the cement slurry/stone were studied through a variety of tests. The results showed that the phase-change temperature, thermal enthalpy, and encapsulation efficiency of the microcapsules were 8.99–16.74 °C, 153.58 Jg−1, and 47.2%, respectively. The introduction of lipophilic-modified graphite reduced the initial phase-change temperature of microcapsules by 0.49 °C, indicating an improvement in their temperature sensitivity. The maximum hydration heat of cement slurry decreased by 41.3% with 7% dosage of microcapsules; the proposed microcapsules outperformed comparable low-heat additives. Moreover, the presence of microcapsules could reduce the number of large pores in (and thereby improve the compressive strength of) cement stone. The innovation of this study is that it comprehensively and intuitively confirms the feasibility of the application of low-heat cement slurry with MPCM as the key in hydrate sediments rather than just focusing on the reduction of hydration heat; furthermore, a self-made cementing device was developed to simulate the cementing process of hydrate deposition. The results show that the thermal regulation of microcapsules inhibited the temperature increase rate of the cement slurry, significantly reducing the damage caused to the hydrate. These findings should improve the safety and quality of cement in offshore oil and gas well applications.

Synthesis and Properties of Inositol Nanocapsules

Sugar alcohols are phase-change materials with various advantages but may suffer from leakage during applications. In this study, inositol nanocapsules were synthesized at various conditions, including the amount of precursors and the time for adding the precursors. The effects of synthesis conditions on the properties of the nanocapsules were studied. The morphology, chemical composition, microstructure, phase-change characteristics and size distribution of the nanocapsules were investigated by scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), transmission electron microscope (TEM), differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and a zeta potential analyzer. The results confirm that inositol was well-encapsulated by an SiO₂ shell. The shell thickness increased, while the supercooling degree of the nanocapsules decreased with increasing time for adding the precursors. In order to obtain nanocapsules with good morphology and phase-change characteristics, the time for adding the precursors should increase with the amount of precursors. The nanocapsules with the best properties exhibited high melting enthalpy, encapsulation ratio and energy storage efficiency of 216.0 kJ/kg, 83.1% and 82.1%, respectively. The size of the nanocapsules was remarkably affected by the triethoxysilane (TES) amount.

pH-controlled synthesis of sustainable lauric acid/SiO2 phase change material for scalable thermal energy storage

Lauric acid (LA) has been recommended as economic, eco-friendly, and commercially viable materials to be used as phase change materials (PCMs). Nevertheless, there is lack of optimized parameters to produce microencapsulated PCMs with good performance. In this study, different amounts of LA have been chosen as core materials while tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) as the precursor solution to form silicon dioxide (SiO₂) shell. The pH of precursor solution was kept at 2.5 for all composition of microencapsulated LA. The synthesized microencapsulated LA/SiO₂ has been characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The SEM and TEM confirm the microencapsulation of LA with SiO₂. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) revealed better thermal stability of microencapsulated LA/SiO₂ compared to pure LA. PCM with 50% LA i.e. LAPC-6 exhibited the highest encapsulation efficiency (96.50%) and encapsulation ratio (96.15%) through Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) as well as good thermal reliability even after 30th cycle of heating and cooling process.