Production, characterization and application of nano - phase change materials: a review

Abstract

Phase Change Materials (PCMs) for heat storage and energy saving has been extensively used in many fields for heating and cooling processes, including building, solar energy, textiles, agriculture, and electronics. PCMs have been getting incredible attention for being low-cost materials and have potential materials for thermal energy storage (TES) with long cycle life. Though, the disadvantages such as flow, result in encapsulation in three scales of Macro, Micro and Nano capsules. Encapsulating PCM reduces the disadvantages and improves the efficiency of PCMs. Different methods for producing PCMs in the scale of nano and core-shell materials, have been developed and the capsules size in relation to parameters such as pH, stirring rate, material selection and preparation method have been investigated. In recent years, this subject has been extensively studied, seeking to find more efficient and safer PCMs. In this context, nanoscale PCMs have been produced and applied to the most diverse products and their performance evaluated. They simply modified and optimized production processes. The novelty of this study lies in the fact that merely a few articles have reviewed nano-encapsulating of PCMs, focusing on new developments on PCM nanocapsules. Moreover, few articles have compared nano and microcapsules of PCMs so far. The analysed papers suggest that the production methods influence the size of the obtained capsules. The purpose of this article is to make an updated review of the synthesis and application of nano-encapsulated PCMs.