Melting Intercalation Method to Prepare Lauric Acid/Organophilic Montmorillonite Shape-stabilized Phase Change Material

A kind of novel shape-stabilized phase change material (SSPCM) was prepared by using a melting intercalation technique. This kind of SSPCM was made of lauric acid (LA) as a phase change material and organophilic montmorillonite (OMMT) as a support material. And the thermal properties and morphology of the SSPCM were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscope (TEM), scanning electronic microscope (SEM), scanning calorimeter (DSC), and differential thermal cravimetry (TG). The DSC result shows that the phase change temperature of the SSPCM is close to that of LA, and its latent heat is equivalent to that of the calculated value based on the mass ratio of LA measured by TG. The XRD, SEM and TEM results demonstrate that the LA intercalates into the silicate layers of the OMMT, thus forming a typically intercalted hybrid, which can restrict the molecular chain of the LA within the structure of OMMT at high temperature. And consequently SSPCM can keep its solid state during its solid-liquid phase change processing.