Calcium Alginate/Silver Nanosheet Microencapsulated Phase Change Materials with Controlled Morphology for Thermal Energy Storage and Antibacterial Application

A synthesis strategy of calcium alginate/silver nanosheet microencapsulated phase change material (Alg/Ag-MEPCM) with controlled morphology was proposed, which is assisted with calcium carbonate microencapsulated phase change material (CaCO3-MEPCM) as a template. After successively adsorbing alginate and Ag+ on the template surface, the addition of l-ascorbic acid dissolved CaCO3 in the template to synthesize calcium alginate, while Ag+ was reduced to silver nanosheets by controlling the concentrations of the alginate and Ag+. The Alg/Ag-MEPCM exhibited a satisfactory latent heat storage capacity of 99.51 J/g, which enabled the PVA hydrogels containing Alg/Ag-MEPCM to have favorable temperature regulation ability. Moreover, the abundant silver nanosheets in Alg/Ag-MEPCM provided the PVA hydrogel containing Alg/Ag-MEPCM with a favorable antimicrobial capacity. Thus, the Alg/Ag-MEPCM prepared in this work has a promising application in the fields of thermal energy storage, thermoregulation, and antimicrobials, specifically as wound dressings and food packaging.