Development of Phase Change Materials in Clothing Part I: Formulation of Microencapsulated Phase Change

Microcapsules containing phase change material for textile thermal insulation were synthesized and characterized. Prior to the encapsulation, the formation, the stability and phase change behavior of paraffin mixture were studied to define an optimum formulation with a wide temperature range. The addition of approximately 4 wt-% tetraethyl orthosilicate in n-hexadecane-n-eicosane mixture was found to improve latent heat of phase change. Microcapsules with approximately 70 wt-% paraffin in core material were investigated by using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, thermal gravimetric analysis, and scanning electron microscopy.