Thermal energy storage and mechanical performance of composites of rigid polyurethane foam and phase change material prepared by one-shot synthesis method

Using polyurethane foams integrated with phase change materials (PCMs) that take cooperative advantages of heat insulation and heat storage capacity can meet the demand for thermal comfort and energy conservation purpose in the buildings. One-shot synthesis method, a cost-effective method, was used in this study for fabrication of PU-PCM composite foams. It is ascertained that thermal regulation capacity of composite foams is facilely tunable as latent heat storage properties of composite foams containing 10–20 wt.% n-octadecane as PCM ranged from 17.72 J.g −1 to 34.51 J.g −1 . Inclusion of PCM resulted in increasing the cell size of composite foams accompanied with reduced closed-cell content compared with those of pristine PU foam. However, as the PCM fraction increased, the cell size of composite foams tended to decrease. Given the fact that the geometry of foam cells determines specific compressive properties, specific compressive strength and modulus of PU foam dropped from 3.89 ± 0.20 kPa.m 3 .kg −1 and 77.48 ± 5.72 kPa.m 3 .kg −1 to 2.67 ± 0.43 kPa.m 3 .kg −1 and 46.05 ± 9.86 kPa.m 3 .kg −1 , respectively after incorporation of 10 wt.% n-octadecane. However, as the foam cell size reduced by increasing the PCM content, specific compressive strength and modulus were improved and reached 3.44 ± 0.30 kPa.m 3 .kg −1 and 65.50 ± 1.16 kPa.m 3 .kg −1 , respectively for composite foam containing 20 wt.% n-octadecane which are comparable to those of PU foam. Additionally, the PCM leakage from this composite foam was less than others. This study suggests that by adjusting the PCM content, one-shot synthesized PU-PCM composite foams can provide not only reasonable thermal regulation properties and appropriate thermal reliability but also sufficient mechanical properties.