Volume 4: Innovative Solutions for Energy Transitions: Part III

Microencapsulation of D-Mannitol by A Sol-Gel Process Lijuan He, Songping Mo* , Fan Wu, Lisi Jia, Ying Chen

Abstract

D-mannitol (DM) is a phase change material (PCM) for medium temperature thermal energy storage. In this paper the preparation of microencapsulated d-mannitol by a sol-gel process is reported. The microencapsulation of d-mannitol was confirmed by characterization using a scanning electronic microscope (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) analysis. The thermal properties of the microencapsules were measured by a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) instrument. The thermal stability of the synthesized DM microencapsules was investigated by means of thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA). The results show that the microencapsulated d-mannitol have a high phase change latent heat of 220.3 J/g and improved thermal stability.

Keywords phase change material, microencapsulation, mannitol, sol-gel, silica