Supercritical Impregnation of Organic Phase Change Materials into Polyester Fiber

A new technique preparing polyester fiber impregnated with organic phase change material(PCM) was proposed and experimentally examined. The impregnation apparatus consisted of a high pressure pump, two consecutive high pressure cylinders and auxiliary facilities. Polyester fiber was bound on cylindrical stainless steel net inside equilibrium cylinder and was impregnated with supercritical solution of PCM. PCMs, paraffin waxes and organic acids, were successfully impregnated into the polyester fiber even at temperature below it’s glass transition temperature(Tg), and the impregnated fibers showed high energy storage and release capacity around the melting point of respective PCMs.