Surface properties studies of MPCMs containing fabrics for thermo-regulating textiles

This paper reports the effect of microencapsulated phase change materials (MPCMs) and silicon carbide (SiC) by a direct composite coating on outdoor winter fabrics by examining the changes in the mechanical and physical properties that occur before and after the composite coating. Pretreated waterproof breathable nylon was coated with PCMs 20 wt% (20PCM) and PCMs 20 wt%/SiC 20 wt% (SC-20PCM). The far-infrared (FIR) emissivity was measured using a Fourier transform infrared spectroradiometer. The cross-section morphology, mechanical properties and changes in pore size were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), a Kawabata evaluation system for fabrics (KES-F) and porometry, respectively. SEM revealed the successful embedding of MPCMs and SiC into the coating layer. The KES-F system showed that the application of coating additives onto the fabrics made them stiffer and slightly heavier but decreased their pore size. The FIR emissivity was only marginally improved from 0.88 to 0.9.