Preparation of paraffin @ melamine-formaldehyde resin microcapsules coated with silver nano-particles

This paper reports the preparation of a microencapsulated phase change material (MEPCM) coated with silver nano-particles by a situ polymerization and a chemical reduction method for the first time. The MEPCM is fabricated through situ polymerization, with melamine-formaldehyde (MF) resin as the wall and phase change material paraffin as the core. The condition core/shell ratio from 0.28 to 0.60 for preparing MEPCM was discussed. And the morphology, chemical structure, surface element weight percentage, and thermal property of the samples were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), energy dispersive X-ray detector (EDX), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). It was expected that the resultant MEPCM would be thermally stable, antibacterial, anti-fugal and have a lower infrared emissivity because silver itself had a low infrared emissivity.