Preparation of energy storage materials for energy saving and investigation of thermal energy storage properties

While fossil fuel reserves are steadily declining, consumption is growing rapidly with energy need. For this reason, it is important that the energy obtained is accessible to the user with minimum loss and cost. The high investment costs in energy technologies require that the energy obtained be used without losses. The supply of energy to the consumer with minimal loss and just in time, the elimination of the incompatibility between energy supply and demand, and the efficient use of available resources by ensuring energy sustainability are the key elements in the development of new technologies. The use of fewer energy-consuming devices that need electrical energy, the use of materials and systems that allow energy efficiency in buildings, and waste heat recovery, provides savings in energy consumption directly or indirectly. At this point, energy storage technologies, which have been emphasized in recent years, can provide effective use of resources and reduce total energy consumption of systems. The latent thermal energy storage systems, one of the thermal energy storage methods, and the phase change materials (PCMs) used in these systems have become one of the increasingly important research subjects in recent years. Scientific studies are underway to develop novel materials with high thermal energy storage capacity and thermal conductivity and long lived. In this work, it is aimed to produce new phase change materials (PCMs) to be used for energy saving. For this, a mixture of n-hexadecane, capric acid and oleic acid as the core material was encapsulated in the styrene-divinylbenzene polymer shell by emulsion polymerization technique. The shell/core ratio, the duration of emulsification and the amount of cross-linker affecting the performance and properties of obtained PCM were investigated using the Central Composite Experimental Design method, one of the multivariate analysis methods. The thermal properties of the produced PCMs were determined by Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA); morphological characteristics and structure were characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Polarized Optical Microscopy (POM) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR). Furthermore, heat storage property of developed PCM has been tested on laboratory scale on an air flow system. It was seen that the obtained PCM can be used in various systems for energy saving, especially in air conditioning systems.