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 wellpreserved 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.