Study on the microstructures and thermal properties of SiO₂@NaNO₃ microcapsule thermal storage materials

In this paper a novel SiO₂@NaNO₃ microcapsule thermal storage material is successfully fabricated via water-limited sol-gel method. The effects of SiO₂ nanoparticles on the microstructures, thermal conductivity, specific heat capacity, latent heat and thermal stability are investigated. SEM and TEM investigation indicates that the spherical SiO₂ nanoparticles with an average diameters of 30 nm are coated on the surface of NaNO₃ evenly to form a homogeneous and stable core-shell structure. Microencapsulated composites are characterized by XRD and FTIR to determine the chemical compositions and structures. The thermal conductivity of SiO₂@NaNO₃ microcapsules is significantly enhanced by 62.9% (0.756 W m⁻¹ K⁻¹) compared with 0.464 W m⁻¹ K⁻¹ of that of NaNO₃. In addition, the latent heat, phase change temperature, specific heat capacity and thickness of shell of the microencapsulated NaNO₃ with 18.1 wt% SiO₂ were 310.1°C, 144.7 J g⁻¹, 1.831 J/(g·K), and 80-150 nm, respectively. Furthermore, microencapsulated NaNO₃ have excellent shape and thermal stability at working temperature range. SiO₂ nanoparticles are uniformly attached to the modified NaNO₃ by electrostatic interaction to create a physical protective SiO₂ barrier, which can effectively inhibit the leakage and cauterization of melting NaNO₃.