Microencapsulated phase change material/wood fiber-starch composite as novel bio-based energy storage material for buildings

This work is aimed to produce a novel energy effective-composite material was prepared for building thermal energy storage (TES) purposes by incorporating microencapsulated phase material (MicroPCM) into a wood fiber-starch (WFC). Characterization studies on the MicroPCM/WFC material included the assessments of microstructures via scanning electron microscope (SEM) and chemical structures using Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FT-IR). The TES characteristics and thermal stability were determined through differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA) techniques, respectively. The thermal conductivity and internal bonding strength properties of fabricated MicroPCM/WFC(50 wt%) composite was also evaluated as well as investigating its thermoregulation performance in lab-scale. SEM analysis confirmed a uniform structure with intact MicroPCM particles in the composite. DSC findings exposed the suitability of the composite for building TES practices. Thermal cycling examination revealed that the composite still well-preserved its TES features after 600 heating and cooling cycles. Additionally, the composite showed a thermal conductivity of 0.1041 W/mK and an internal bonding strength of 0.04 N/mm². Furthermore, thermoregulation performance test indicated that the introduction of MicroPCM in the WFC effectively reduced room temperature fluctuations compared to WFC without MicroPCM. The results suggest that the developed MicroPCM/WFC composite serves as a potential green solution for enhanced energy savings in building applications.