Fabrication and characterization of a novel polyurethane microencapsulated phase change material for thermal energy storage

[Display omitted] •A novel polyurethane microencapsulated phase change material (MEPCM) was prepared.•MEPCM exhibits excellent compactness, mechanical properties, thermal stability, and storage stability.•MEPCM has promising application in thermal energy storage filed.•The preparation conditions of MEPCMs were comprehensively explored. Microencapsulated phase change materials (MEPCMs) can efficiently prevent the leakage and erosion of melting phase change materials during phase change process, which exhibit a bright industrial application prospect in the fields of thermal energy storage. Herein, a novel polyurethane (PU) microencapsulated methyl laurate was successfully fabricated via interfacial polymerization. The preparation conditions of PU-based MEPCMs were comprehensively explored, offering a systematic guidance for the tailored design of novel MEPCMs. And the experimental results indicate that the obtained PU-based MEPCMs have high latent heat storage capacity. Specially, when the core/shell mass ratio is 3:1, the melting enthalpies, freezing enthalpies, and core contents of MEPCMs reach as high as 136.2 J/g, 121.2 J/g and 75.18 %, respectively. Meantime, the resulting PU-based MEPCMs also present excellent thermal reliability and storage stability. The development of novel PU-based MEPCMs may open up a new opportunity for their wider applications in the thermal energy storage fields such as architectural coatings, refrigerated storage, and functional thermal fluids.