Synthesis of n-eicosane with SiO2 through interfacial hydrolysis and polycondensation for thermoregulated leather fabrication

Background

In the last few years, there has been increased interest in technical processing for better thermoregulation of leather. Phase Change Materials (PCMs) are good for thermal energy storage (TES) due to their low cost and excellent thermal stability. These materials are used for various applications such as energy storage, textiles, thermal conditioning of buildings, and solar power storage.

Methods

Herein, simple and cost-effective microencapsulation of phase change materials (MEPCMs) is reported for TES through interfacial hydrolysis and polycondensation of tetraethyl orthosilicate. Microencapsulation enhances the thermal and mechanical properties and prevents leakage of PCM. The synthesized MEPCMs have been characterized by XRD, ATR-FTIR, TGA, DSC, DLS, leakage test, and FE-SEM analysis.

Significant findings

The MEPCM-6 shows the phase change enthalpy as 70.3 J g^-1 and 60.7 J g^-1, for the melting and freezing process, respectively. The optimized MEPCM has been applied to leather for developing thermoregulation properties on leather. MEPCMs-coated leathers show up to 2.6 °C lower and 2.2 °C higher temperature difference than control leather in hot and in cold conditions, respectively.