Abstract: Both alginate and chitosan are cheap and environmental friendly as the natural polymers, which have the considerable prospects. In order to solve fatty alcohol Leakage problem during the phase change process, microencapsulated binary fatty alcohol with alginate-chitosan shells as phase change material for thermal energy storage were prepared by emulsification-gelation. The dosages of core materials, CaCO3, emulsifier and the concentration of chitosan have been investigated. Microcapsules were characterized by DSC, SEM, laser particle sizer and temperature-time cures. The results show that the phase transition temperature is 37.9℃, the temperature adjustment range is 37.9~40.8℃, the latent heat is 52.8J/g, and binary fatty alcohol encapsulation efficiency is 44.7%.

Key words: microcapsule, sodium alginate, chitosan, heat storage, phase change material