Development of rigid polyurethane foam incorporating phase change material for a low-temperature thermal energy storage application

Abstract

Polyurethane (PU) foam is most commonly used in thermal insulation in cold storage applications but it lacks thermal energy storage characteristics. In the present work, a phase change material (PCM) n-tetradecane is microencapsulated with poly(methyl methacrylate-co-methacrylic acid) using oil-in-water emulsion polymerization followed by incorporation into the PU foam formulation to fabricate composite foam. The purpose of the study was to combine thermal insulation along with thermal energy storage characteristics into PU foam. The phase change enthalpy of PU foam was improved from 22.43 to 55.46 J g−1 by changing the microcapsule loading fraction from 10% to 30%. The composite PU foam exhibits good thermal reliability even after 100 thermal cycling tests. The morphological observation confirms a decrease in cell size while increasing the microcapsule content. It is found that microcapsule addition has no effect on the thermal stability of PU foam. A prototype has been fabricated and tested, showing an enhancement in the thermal energy storage capacity of PU composite foam. This performance makes this PU-PCM system feasible for cold energy storage applications. © 2022 Society of Industrial Chemistry.