Encapsulation techniques for organic phase change materials as thermal energy storage medium: A review

Thermal energy storage based on organic phase change materials (OPCMs) has attracted much attention to various applications for their excellence properties. However, OPCMs suffers from liquid leakage problem and low thermal conductivity, which limit their application as TES material. Encapsulation of OPCMs using organic or inorganic supporting materials is an effective way to overcome the leakage problem and enhancing their thermal conductivity property. In addition, the capsules could prevent possible interaction between OPCMs with the environment. There are many technologies described the encapsulation of OPCMs which depending on the type of supporting material and chemical properties of the OPCMs used. However, no complete overview of the techniques for encapsulation of OPCMs is available in the open literature. In this paper, we reviewed the techniques used for encapsulation of OPCMs and the method used to characterize the physico-chemical and thermal properties of encapsulated OPCMs. We believed that this review could provide useful information on the various encapsulation methods of OPCMs. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.