Dissipative particle dynamics study of nano-encapsulated thermal energy storage phase change material

Abstract

The nano-encapsulated phase change materials (PCM), which have several good thermophysical properties, were proposed as potential for thermal energy storage. Various PCM have been widely researched on micro and macro perspective by experimental and simulated methods to form a bridge between the microstructure and macroscale properties of the nano-encapsulated PCM. In this study, the dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulation method was used to investigate the mesoscopic morphologies and evolution mechanisms of the nano-encapsulated PCM. The coarse-grained and Flory–Huggins-type models were used to obtain the molecular structures and interaction parameters. The results showed that the nano-encapsulated PCM can be fabricated by using n-docosane as a core material and styrene (St), ethyl acrylate (EA) and allyloxy nonyl-phenoxy propanol polyoxyethylene ether ammonium sulfate (DNS-86) as shell materials. The core–shell structures failed to fabricate with excess surfactant and shell materials. The preliminary optimized encapsulation rate of the core material could be useful for the design and experiment of the nano-encapsulated PCM.