Microencapsulation of phase change materials (PCMs) could prevent the leakage of PCMs during solid⁻liquid phase change process. However, their applications are mainly limited by the compactness and thermal stability of the traditional polyurea shell microcapsules. To increase the thermal compactness and thermal stability of PCM microcapsules, tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) was employed to form polymer/SiO₂ composite shells to enhance the mechanical performance of polyurea and polyurethane microcapsule via interfacial polymerization and in situ polymerization. The morphology and chemical components of the microcapsules were characterized by field-emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, respectively. The thermal properties of the microcapsules were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermal gravity analysis (TGA). The results showed the smoothness and compactness of both polyurea⁻SiO₂ and polyurethane⁻SiO₂ microcapsules enhanced slightly, when compared with that without TEOS addition. Moreover, the SiO₂ composite shell had good effect on thermal compactness, as the weight loss rate of polyurea⁻SiO₂ microcapsules and polyurethane⁻SiO₂ microcapsules decreased 3.5% and 4.1%, respectively.
Keywords: SiO2 nanoparticles; microcapsules; phase change material; polyurea; polyurethane.