Polymer coatings for latent heat storage

M. M RUIZ; G. RIVERO; W. F. SCHROEDER; I. E. DELLERBA; C. E. HOPPE

Mar del Plata

Simposio; XVI SIMPOSIO LATINOAMERICANO DE POLÍMEROS Y XIV CONGRESO IBEROAMERICANO DE POLÍMEROS; 2018

INTEMA (CONICET-UNMdP)

In times of global warming, humanity needs todevelop systems to generate and store energy in agreen and efficient way. Phase Change Materials(PCMs) have been extensively studied and alreadyapplied in modern constructions as they can absorbheat during day and release it at night for keepingtemperature between comfort levels. PCMs can beincorporated in many components of buildings, such asradiant floors, panels, concrete walls and windows. Wepropose to develop polymer coatings for smartwindows with the ability of storing latent heat1 byincorporating eicosane (C20) into a host matrixobtained by crosslinking of poly (ethylene glycol)dimethacrylate (PEGDMA, Mn: 550). C20 presents amelting temperature of 37 °C and a latent heat of 232J/g. However, C20 is highly incompatible with thePEGDMA matrix, which leads to phase separationprocesses that produce leakage when melting. Hence,encapsulation in a polymer shell obtained by emulsionpolymerization of ethylene glycol dimethacrylate(EGDMA, MW 198) is proposed in order to obtain amaterial with PCM properties that can be easilydispersed in liquid reactive monomers for furtherpolymerization by visible light at room temperature