Applied Energy 185 (2017) 720–731

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Applied Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apenergy

Worldwide trends on encapsulation of phase change materials: A

bibliometric analysis (1990–2015)
Alptug Yataganbaba a, Bengi Ozkahraman b, Irfan Kurtbas a,⇑
a
Hitit University, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, North Campus, Corum 19030, Turkey
b
Hitit University, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Polymer Engineering, North Campus, Corum 19030, Turkey

h i g h l i g h t s

 1034 papers with the keyword ‘‘encapsulation” were determined from 1990 to 2015.
 Article type comes into prominence as dominant species in terms of type of publication.
 China and United States is the most productive countries.
 Ahmet Sarı is the most productive author considering the average citations per article.
 Over 91.89% of the publications were published in English.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Context: Science is not static! In light of this basic approach, it can be expressed clearly that bibliometric
Received 14 July 2016 methods or analysis has become an indispensable guide to be draw scientific and technological roadmaps
Received in revised form 25 October 2016 in their research areas for researchers especially in recent years. The present study is planned as the first
Accepted 26 October 2016
step of the study which will be conducted by authors on nano-encapsulation of phase change materials.
Available online 2 November 2016
Objective: This study combines a traditional literature review with data mining procedures by using bib-
liometric approach to identify the evolution of the knowledge structure related to encapsulation of phase
Keywords:
change materials. Papers published from 1990 to 2015 in all journals indexed by the Scopus database
Bibliometric analysis
Phase change material
were considered.
Encapsulation Method: Bibliometric methods and knowledge visualization technologies were employed to investigate
Miniemulsion polymerization publication activities based on the following indicators: year of publication, document type, language,
country, institution, author, journal, keyword, number of citations.
Results: As a result of bibliometric analysis; 34,626 papers were determined with the keyword ‘‘phase
change material” and 1034 papers with the keyword ‘‘encapsulation”. The number of publications on
encapsulation of phase change materials have increased significantly after 2000. China, the United
States and India are the most productive countries, while Tsinghua University and South China
University of Technology from China are the most important institutions related to encapsulation.
Applied Energy (39) is the most productive journal followed by Energy Conversation and Management
(31).
Conclusion: This is the first bibliometric analysis study on encapsulation of phase change materials. The
results of this research support the idea that this type of bibliometric analysis would be a fruitful area as a
first step for further works, not only associated with phase change materials. Further investigations into
research fields are strongly recommended.
Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contents

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 721
2. Phase change material (PCM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 721
2.1. Heat transfer enhancement techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 721

⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: [email protected] (I. Kurtbas).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2016.10.107
0306-2619/Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 A. Yataganbaba et al. / Applied Energy 185 (2017) 720–731 721

3. Encapsulation of PCM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 721

3.1. Material selection/type of materials. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 721
3.2. Classification of encapsulation methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 722
3.2.1. Interfacial polymerization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 722
3.2.2. Emulsion polymerization method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 723
3.2.3. Mini-emulsion polymerization method. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 723
3.2.4. In situ polymerization method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 724
3.2.5. Sol-gel method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 724
3.2.6. Complex coacervation method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 724
4. Bibliometric literature analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 724
5. Worldwide trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 725
6. Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 729
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 729

1. Introduction PCM can absorb large amount of thermal energy from the environ-
ment when it melts, conversely, it releases an equal amount of
The main issue that drew attention by the energy statistic energy when it freezes. Therefore, PCM is an ideal solution for ther-
reports regularly published every year by different institutions in mal management due to this property. The best example that can
worldwide is the increasing demand for more energy day by day. be given to PCM is water/ice. Ice stores a large quantity of heat
Population growth is the key driving factor behind growing and maintain temperature at 0 °C when it melts. However, the
demand for energy. The world’s energy demand will reach 17–18 solidification temperature of water is fixed at 0 °C, which makes
billion tonne oil equivalents (t.o.e.) according to reports published it unsuitable for most thermal energy storage applications. To
by International Energy Agency (IEA) [1]. Besides, the inability of overcome this unwanted situation, various PCMs having a broad
the amount of production to meet this demand, increase in carbon range of phase change temperature have been developed by pro-
emission values resulting from fossil fuels and ever increasing ducers. Generally, PCMs can be classified in three main categories;
financial crisis and political instabilities push countries to develop organic and inorganic materials, and eutectic mixtures. Among
new energy policies. At this point, renewable energy technologies many available organic PCM, paraffin wax (characterized by
and energy efficiency have become prominent topics in recent CnH2n+2) is the most preferred one due to better chemical stability,
years. Renewables are projected to be the fastest growing power low cost, high thermal energy storage capacity, 200–250 kJ/kg
source (approximately 6%) to 2035 [2], and it is expected that effi- depending on the particular paraffin selected, and repeatable
ciency measures reduce demand growth to 60% in OECD countries melt/solidify cycles without degradation [7]. However, they have
[3]. The world needs a revolution in which energy is affordable, undesirable properties apart from favourable characteristics such
accessible and sustainable. Energy efficiency and conservation con- as: low thermal conductivity, flammability, large volumetric
stitute an undeniable step in this revolution [4]. Therefore, the change. Contrary to organic materials, inorganic PCMs have much
storage and efficient usage of energy has become priority for higher latent heat per unit volume, higher conductivity, and non-
researchers and energy industry especially in order to overcome flammable. Although PCMs have many advantages compared with
the imbalance between energy supply and demand. Fig. 1 presents sensible heat storage material, there is still need for research to
a summary of various energy storage technologies and their devel- overcome some shortcomings such as; incongruent melting, super-
opment stages. cooling and low thermal conductivity. Researchers have focused on
Although different type of energy can be stored (mechanical, two main subjects to solve these problems; (i) discovering more
electrical, thermal etc), only thermal energy storage (TES) will be kinds of PCMs have a wide range of transition temperature, (ii)
discussed in this study. TES is described by Dincer and Rosen [6], enhancing heat transfer to promote melting and solidification.
as”. . . an advanced energy technology that is attracting increasing Some of the research in the literature especially conducted to
interest for thermal applications such as space and water heating, increase heat transfer performance of PCMs were discussed in
cooling, and air conditioning”. Three types of TES methods can be the following section.
mentioned; (i) sensible heat storage process occurs a change of
temperature. It is the simplest and common form of storing ther-
2.1. Heat transfer enhancement techniques
mal energy, (ii) latent heat storage is a low cost method for thermal
energy storage. It is based on the heat absorption or release when a
Enhancement of heat transfer characteristics of PCM is one of
storage material undergoes a phase change from solid to liquid or
the most attractive topics for researchers in recent years. This is
liquid to gas or vice versa, (iii) thermochemical heat storage is a
a critical step for thermal energy storage applications, because
relatively new and promising alternative to traditional sensible
the low thermal conductivity is the most important barrier to high
heat storage methods. However, requirement of efficient chemical
storage capacity of PCM. There is a large volume of published stud-
reaction is one the limitations. In the present study, it was focused
ies describing the role of various methods as heat transfer
on latent heat storage materials (also known as phase-change
enhancement (Table 1).
materials (PCM).

3. Encapsulation of PCM
2. Phase change material (PCM)
3.1. Material selection/type of materials
PCM is a promising unique material which allows for the stor-
age/release of thermal energy as latent heat form at almost con- Micro or nano encapsulation is the process by which individual
stant temperature. The latent heat transfers during the phase particles or droplets of solids or liquid materials (the core) are sur-
change process, for example; from solid to liquid, liquid to solid. rounded or coated with a continuous film of polymeric materials
722 A. Yataganbaba et al. / Applied Energy 185 (2017) 720–731

Fig. 1. Energy storage technologies and their development stages [5].

Table 1
Summary of important studies as heat transfer enhancement method on PCM.

Authors PCM Materials and Type of enhancement method Type of study Observations
properties
Fang et al. [8] Tm = 393 K, k = 0.326 W/ Internal aluminium(Al) and copper Numerical Small fin-ratio can reduce melting time, the angle between
mK L = 339.8 kJ/kg (Cu) fins k(Al) = 202.4 and k(Cu) neighbour fins has little and the outer tube conductivity has
= 387.6 W/mK great impact on melting process
Sharifi et al. [9] Paraffin (octadecane) Internal copper fins, k(Cu) = 401 W/ Numerical Rapid melting occurs during the early stages of the phase
Tm = 303 K, k = 0.2 W/mK mK change with horizontal fins
L = 125 kJ/kg
Yang et al. [10] Paraffin wax, Tm = 321– Copper foam (20PPI) and a bottom Experimental Completely melting the PCM in composite takes over 1/3 less
323 K k(s) = 0.3 W/mK, fin time than that of pure paraffin under the same operating
L = 136 kJ/kg conditions
Yataganbaba and Paraffin (n-heptacosane) 10PPI, 20PPI aluminium foams Experimental The effect of metal foam on the solid/liquid phase change
Kurtbas [11] Tm = 332– heat transfer is significant, particularly for the top-heating
334 K k = 0.21 W/mK, case
L = 236 kJ/kg
Sßahan et al. [12] Paraffin, Tm = 319– Paraffin–nanomagnetite (Fe3O4) Experimental The addition of Fe3O4 nanoparticles is an efficient and cost
321 K k = 0.21 W/mK composites effective method to enhance the heat transfer properties of
paraffin
Sarı et al. [13] Paraffin (n-octacosane) Polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) Experimental Microcapsules have good thermal reliability and have good
microcapsules energy storage potential
Karaipekli [14] Stearic palmitic acid Expanded graphite (particle size of Experimental The melting times of composite PCMs were reduced
Tm = 340–343 K 35–75 lm) and carbon fiber significantly with respect to that of pure stearic acid
(filament diameter of 6 lm)
Ji et al. [15] Palmitic acid Carbon nanotube(diameter range Experimental The thermal conductivity of the composite is significantly
20–40 nm and length of 10–15 mm) enhanced
Mills et al. [16] Paraffin Porous graphite matrices Experimental Using the PCM-composite as a passive thermal management
system for a lithium ion battery pack discharged at high rates

(the shell). There are considered as potential materials reported application, food agroindustry, thermal protection of electronic
that as core materials such n-eicosane [17,18], n-octadecane devices, thermal comfort vehicles, fabrics, insulation panel [49–
[13,19–25], n-dodeconal [26,45], paraffin wax [27,28], n- 53] by which small droplets of liquid or solid particles are coated
tetracosane [29]. In addition, the polymers can be used as shell with a shell. The technologies of several kinds of microencapsu-
materials poly(styrene) [21,30,31], poly(methyl methacrylate) lated PCMs, interfacial polymerization, emulsion polymerization,
[32–35], poly(melamine formaldehyde) [21–23,36], poly(n-butyl miniemulsion polymerization, in situ polymerization, sol-gel
methacrylate) [37,38], poly(ethylacrylate) [39,40]. Table 2 summa- methods, and complex coacervation method are discussed in this
rizes the core-shall materials and the particle size based on publi- review. Nano-micro encapsulation of polymerization methods
cations for the year of 1990–2015. and applications are also shown in Table 2.

3.2. Classification of encapsulation methods 3.2.1. Interfacial polymerization

Interfacial polymerization technique has been widely studied
Encapsulation is one of the techniques used for enhancing the since it was first reported by Morgan [49] in 1965. In Interfacial
holding the liquid/solid phase and stability developed in 1940s polymerization technique, the two reactants in a polycondensation
and 1950s. It is defined as an advanced technology of PCMs with meet at an interface and react rapidly. The methods of interfacial
smart building materials [24], spacecraft thermal systems, medical polymerization two monomer is reacted at the interface between
 A. Yataganbaba et al. / Applied Energy 185 (2017) 720–731 723

Table 2
Summary of major parameters for encapsulation methods of PCM.

Authors Polymerization Size Core/Shell materials Applications

method
Type Distribution
Fang et al. [20] Miniemulsion in-situ Nano 100–123 nm n-octadecane/St/butyl acrylate Synthesis and characterization
polymerization
Zhang et al. [21] In-situ polymerization Nano/ 200–340 nm Melamine-formaldehyde/n-octadecane Fabrication
micro
Fan et al. [22] In-situ polymerization Micro 100 nm Melamine-formaldehyde/n-octadecane Synthesis and characterization
Lee et al. [24] In-situ polymerization Micro 5000– Melamine-resin/hexadecane or n- PCM building materials
20,000 nm octadecane
Chen et al. [26] Miniemulsion Nano 150 nm Poly(methylmethacrylate)/n-dodecanol Great potential for energy storage
polymerization
Silva et al. [27] Suspension-like Nano/ 500 lm Polyvinylpyrrolidone/paraffin wax Textile applications
homopolymerization micro
Sarı et al. [30] Miniemulsion Nano/ 1–15 lm Poly(styrene)/n-heptadecane Temperature regulating applications in
polymerization micro -1–12 lm textile, building, food storage, medical and
-1–20 lm electronic fields
Sarı et al. [31] Emulsion Nano/ 0.01–35 lm Poly(methyl methacrylate)/n-nonadecane Solar thermal controlling of building
polymerization micro envelopes thermal protecting of vehicle
battery systems, and thermal regulating
applications
Sarı et al. [32] Emulsion Nano/ 1.3 lm Polymethylmethacrylate(PMMA)/capric– Used to fabricate new building
polymerization micro stearic eutectic components
Qiu et al. [37] Suspension Micro Poly(butyl methacrylate-co-methacrylic Good potentials for thermal energy
polymerization acid)/n-alkane-n-octadecane storage, such as building materials
Qiu et al. [38] Suspension Micro 1.45–0.43 lm Poly(methylmethacrylate)/n-octadecane Show a good potential as a solar-energy
polymerization storage material
Sarı et al. [13] Emulsion Micro 0.25 lm Poly(methylmethacrylate- Good energy storage potential
polymerization allymethacrylate)/n-octacosane
Sarı et al. [41] Emulsion Micro 0.14–0.40 lm Poly(methylmethacrylate)/n-heptadecane The development and applications of such
polymerization type micro PCMs may provide to
widespread use of the PCMs
Liang et al. [42] Interfacial Micro 20–35 lm Butyl stearate/ethylenediamine- Packing rate of micro PCMs is good
polycondensation toluene2,4-diisocyanate
Konuklu et al. [43] Suspension Micro 200 nm- Urea-melamine formaldehyde Thermal energy storage
polymerization 1.5 lm resin/caprylic acid
Jamekhorshid Suspension Micro 100–300 lm Poly(styrene)/paraffin wax Thermal energy storage
et al. [44] polymerization
Xia et al. [45] Mini-emulsion Nano 605 nm Cypermethrin –
polymerizations
Qiu et al. [46] Suspension Micro 4–15 lm Poly(butylmethacrylate)/n-octadecane Excellent thermal stabilities and great
polymerizations thermal reliabilities
Giro-Paloma et al. [47] Suspension Micro 4–15 lm Poly(methylmethacrylate)/paraffin wax Building applications
polymerizations
Al-Shannaq et al. [48] Suspension Micro 5 lm Poly(methyl methacrylate)/RUBITHERMÒ Thermal storage properties
polymerization

the monomers at two liquid phases. The interfacial polymerization reaction initiated by the decomposition of an initiator molecule.
processes that specific point is facilitated the addition of different About 50–80% conversion monomer droplets disappear and the
surfactant agents, either positively or negatively charged and also micelles become large polymer-containing droplets the particle
to hydrophilic surfactant agents in the aqueous phase. The meth- growth stage ends. The final product is a water-based system with
ods of the interfacial polymerization, microcapsule coating of the a low viscosity polymer latex. The emulsion polymerization has
polymeric products is composed from two monomers in distinct more advantages in comparison to solution polymerization. First
phases (organic phase and an aqueous phase) that monomer in of all, much higher molecular weight polymers can be synthesis.
the interface of both phases, during of microencapsulation. The High solid content (50% or higher) polymers can be produced with
interfacial technique has several advantages which high- emulsion polymerization. Another advantage is that the polymer
molecular-weight polymers are obtained by the process. It is more has low viscosity, thus allowing fast air drying by evaporation of
stable than the possibility for high temperature polymers synthe- water [27,32,33,55–61].
sized at lower temperatures [50–55].

3.2.3. Mini-emulsion polymerization method

3.2.2. Emulsion polymerization method Mini-emulsion polymerization is a convenient one step
Emulsion polymerization is the most largely used methods for encapsulation technique for preparing microcapsules since
micro/nanoparticle preparation. Emulsion polymerization is a type 1980. It was assumed that the polymerization mechanism of
of free-radical polymerization. The polymerization systems usually emulsion polymerization of hydrophobic monomers. The water-
contains hydrophobic monomers, surfactants and a water-soluble in-oil (w/o) or oil-in-water (o/w) mini-emulsion droplets are
radical initiator. The monomers are emulsified in water of the involved for the high conversion and the shape properties of
emulsion large size droplets that stabilized by the surfactant. There microlatex particles. In the beginning phases of mini-emulsion
are also surfactants dissolving in the water and excessing surfac- polymerization, the polydispersity of the droplets is still quite
tant present in micelles. As polymerization continues, monomer high, but the size and polydispersity decrease until the
is added to the growing micelles. This polymerization is a chain mini-emulsion determined stability. The main ingredients of
724 A. Yataganbaba et al. / Applied Energy 185 (2017) 720–731

mini-emulsion polymerization monomer, surfactant, co-stabilizer age field. There are two primary aims for authors of this study: 1.
and initiator. Mini-emulsion polymerization technique was used To determine the trends dominating the related research in the
only a small amount of surfactant and a feature of surfactant field of heat transfer enhancement methods of PCMs, especially
residual in the polymer latex. Recently, many useful polymeric nano-encapsulation. 2. To perform a new experimental study
materials have been improved by the mini-emulsion polymeriza- which aims to increase heat transfer performance of PCM with
tion [20,26,30,55–61]. using encapsulation method in the light of obtained data. The fol-
lowing titles constitute the backbone of the bibliometric analysis;
3.2.4. In situ polymerization method number of publications, type of publications, leading journals,
In situ polymerization have been one of the chemical microen- authors, institutions, and countries, etc.
capsulation technics, became in oil-in-water (o/w) polymer mix- Pritchard [68] defined firstly the term bibliometrics in 1969 as
ture. The products have fine smooth morphology and spherical ‘‘the application of mathematical and statistical methods to books
microcapsules with transparent polymeric pressure or tempera- and other media of communication”. In addition to explanation of
ture sensitive microcapsule films. Based on the microencapsulation Pritchard, it comprises components from social sciences, natural
processes synthesized from amine and aldehyde groups of mono- sciences, engineering and even life sciences. Therefore, bibliomet-
mers which it was called precondensates. The condensation prod- rics has become an interdisciplinary research field from that day
ucts are hydrophilic which are prone to interact strongly with to this. Especially, the past ten years have seen increasingly rapid
water molecules. These obstacles can be overcome by reacting advances in the field of bibliometrics [69–74].
the hydroxymethyl groups with lower alcohols to form alkoxy- The researcher should bear in mind that there are a number of
methyl compounds. In the in situ polymerization methods, first limitations associated with bibliometric analysis [75,76];
of all a core material is prepared and then the reaction of the pre-
polymers. The prepolymer is drop wised in the emulsion in which  Direct comparison cannot be made between citations because
it is precipitated during the polymerization. The reaction mixture of they can differ greatly between disciplines.
is cooled down and filtered, obtaining the microcapsules, which  Bibliometric analysis cannot be seen a complete response of
have to be dried [21–24,55–59]. quality measurement. For instance, the number of times
research is cited does not automatically mean that a paper is
of high quality. Citation counts only measure the impact, or
3.2.5. Sol-gel method
usefulness.
The sol-gel polymerization methods have been the polyconden-
 The bibliometric databases do not cover all research areas and
sation reactions which the colloidal suspension (sol) is precursors
do not index all publications. So, time is needed before a mean-
and sol particles condense into a continuous liquid phase (gel).
ingful citation analysis.
The sol-gel process is a room temperature technique for synthesiz-
 There is an incontrovertible tendency that English is the lan-
ing porous materials. The methods can be generally three stages
guage of science. Therefore, many database do not cover publi-
are used to describe the sol-gel process. The first stage is the
cations published in different languages.
hydrolysis reaction and polycondensation reactions of alcohol is
 Database consist of some risks for separating the data in a reli-
gelation of colloidal particles in second stage, the last stage is poly-
able way (researchers who share the same surname and initials,
merization drying process at room temperatures. The sol-gel pro-
meaning that citation counts may be inflated).
cess has many advantages such as better mixing of the starting
materials and perfect chemical properties in the polymeric materi-
The bibliometric research is still one of the methods to under-
als [60–63].
stand the research trends to the contrary of the limitations and
mistakes associated with indicators since each method balances
3.2.6. Complex coacervation method the weaknesses of the other [77–79].
Coacervation method is a one of the microencapsulation The initial step of the bibliometric literature analysis, we
method that is defined as the separation into two liquid phases adopted Scopus database as the data source of this study. Scopus
in colloidal systems. This technic is divided into two categories: web site [80] claims ‘‘. . .the largest abstract and citation database
simple coacervation method and complex coacervation methods. of peer-reviewed literature: scientific journals (more than 60 mil-
Simple coacervation technics usually interests only with one col- lion), books (more than 113.000) and conference proceedings (7.2
loid solute and includes the addition of a strongly hydrophilic com- million)”. Publications on ‘phase change material and encapsula-
pound to a less hydrophilic colloidal dispersion. It generates two tion’ were searched for and retrieved from this database with great
layers: one rich in colloid droplets, and the other deficient in such care. Bibliometric literature analysis was carried out by using some
droplets. On the other hand, complex coacervation involves more indicators, such as descriptive (year of publication, subject cate-
than one colloid and caused by the interaction of two oppositely gories, journal counts), relational (collaborations among authors,
charged colloids between a poly-anion and a poly-cation, both countries, institutions) and qualitative (citations, impact factors)
water-soluble. The complex coacervation methods were signifi- whose title included the following main keyword: ‘‘phase change
cantly affected by the pH of the solution, since pH determines material”, sub-keywords ‘‘encapsulation, nano-encapsulation,
the charge density on ampholytes. [64–67,57]. miniemulsion polymerization”. Publications containing these key-
words in title, abstract, keywords were retrieved for further analy-
4. Bibliometric literature analysis sis. Research areas were further refined by excluding ‘‘Engineering,
Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Energy”. The data were retrieved
This paper attempts to find worldwide trends on encapsulation in May 2016 including a time span from 1990 to 2015.
of phase change material in scientific studies. Data for this purpose The search strategy involved the following search query:
were retrospectively collected from Scopus database. Published TITLE-ABS KEY(phase change material) AND SUBJAREA (mult
studies were identified using a search strategy to shed light on OR ceng OR CHEM OR comp OR eart OR ener OR engi OR envi OR
trends. According to practical viewpoint, this paper does not pro- mate OR math OR phys) AND PUBYEAR > 1989 AND PUB-
vide a comprehensive review of PCM or encapsulation. However, YEAR < 2016 AND (LIMIT-TO(SUBJAREA,‘‘ENGI”) OR LIMIT-TO(SUB
there are several important points where this study makes an orig- JAREA,‘‘CHEM”) OR LIMIT-TO (SUBJAREA,‘‘CENG”) OR LIMIT-TO
inal contribution to researchers who study in thermal energy stor- (SUBJAREA, ‘‘ENER”).
 A. Yataganbaba et al. / Applied Energy 185 (2017) 720–731 725

After the retrieving process of raw data (RIS Format), some gen- 5. Worldwide trends
eral procedures were applied to eliminate some duplicates by
using BibExcel software [81] before carrying out any analysis. Fig. 2 shows the variations in scientific production between
BibExcel software was developed by Professor Olle Persson at 1990 and 2015. As can be observed, the number of publications
Umeå University, Sweden. It is a great tool for helping with biblio- by year has gone increasing. Therefore, relevant topics have
metric analysis, and citation studies in particular. Pajek and Vos- attracted an increasing interest in the scientific community. As a
viewer softwares [82,83] were used in the social network result of search from Scopus database with using ‘‘phase change
analysis for the visualization of networks. material” keyword, it is observed that 34,626 publications on

Fig. 2. Number of publications per year between the period 1990–2015.

4% 6% 1%
5% 1% 2% 4%
Article 11%

Conference
paper
Review nanoencapsulation miniemulsion polym.
encapsulation
Book
chapter
Other 86%
89%
82%

Fig. 3. Most common document types.

Table 3
Breakdown of scientific production by country.

Number of publications % of total (encp.) TC⁄ (encp.) h-index (encp.)

Country Encapsulation Nanoencapsulation Miniemulsion polymerization (R)
China 370 25 83 38.06 5898 42 (1)
United States 253 8 20 26.03 5557 33 (2)
India 65 5 4 6.68 2824 20 (4)
United Kingdom 58 3 5 5.97 1463 22 (3)
Germany 47 1 9 4.84 1001 16 (6)
Japan 45 3 3 4.63 897 14 (8)
Turkey 39 5 8 4.01 2102 18 (5)
South Korea 35 5 7 3.60 771 15 (7)
Spain 33 4 4 3.39 1637 18 (5)
France 27 1 3 2.78 580 14 (8)
Total 972 60 146 100 22,730

TC = Total number of citations (2000–2015).

R = Rank.
Encp = Encapsulation.
Note: % (Percentage) refers to the ratio of one country’s publications to total number of encapsulation publications.
726 A. Yataganbaba et al. / Applied Energy 185 (2017) 720–731

Fig. 4. Collaboration network between countries for encapsulation.

Table 4
Authors with the highest rate of productivity.

Number of publications TC⁄ (encp.) C/A⁄⁄ (encp.) h-index (encp.)

Authors Encapsulation Nanoencapsulation Miniemulsion polymerization
Xiaodong Wang (China) 30 1 7 155 5.16 6
Yinping Zhang (China) 23 2 10 254 11.04 3
Ahmet Sarı (Turkey) 21 1 4 1449 69 13
Wei Li (China) 20 2 9 295 14.75 8
Guoyi Tang (China) 18 2 8 433 24.05 10
Xü Liu (China) 16 1 2 124 7.75 5
Shuangfeng Wang (China) 16 1 3 – – –
Cemil Alkan (Turkey) 16 1 4 842 52.62 10
Zhengguo Zhang (China) 15 4 10 128 8.53 4
Jianhua Wang (China) 15 4 11 – – –
Guolin Song (China) 13 1 5 342 26.30 9
J.Francisco Rodriguez (Spain) 13 1 1 603 46.38 11
Xuenong Gao (China) 4 5 8 36 8.5 2
Yutang Fang (China) 5 4 6 151 30.2 4
M.S. Karthikeyan (India) 3 3 1 7 2.33 2

TC = the total number of citations.

C/A = the average citations per article.

phase change material were published in the field of Engineering, Table 5

Energy, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. Publication produc- The most frequently used words in paper titles.
tion increased very fast after the year 2000. R&D activities have
Word Frequency Word Frequency
been considered one of the most dominant factor for evaluating
Phase 437 Microencapsulated 107
the increment. The number of publications related to phase change
Change 413 Characterization 94
material grew by 108.82% between 1990 and 2000, and by 207.04% Thermal 351 Microcapsules 68
from 2000 to 2010, and 58.94% from 2010 to 2015, respectively. A Materials 272 Composite 63
new search was performed to obtain more specific results within Storage 255 Synthesis 63
the phase change material publications (34,626) in the literature. Energy 215 pcm 55
Material 167 System 52
1034 publications for ‘‘encapsulation” keyword, 56 publications Properties 138 Containing 52
for ‘‘nanoencapsulation” keyword and 153 publications for Preparation 127 Encapsulated 50
‘‘miniemulsion polymerization” keyword were determined. Fig. 2. Heat 125 Paraffin 50
also represents the exponential increase, giving an idea of the
 A. Yataganbaba et al. / Applied Energy 185 (2017) 720–731 727

Fig. 5. Keyword map for encapsulation.

growth rate. x represents the year, and y represents the number of proportional to the total number of collaboration, the thickness
publications. The relationship between x and y was found to be demonstrates the strength of collaboration. China-United States
y = 301.22e0.092x (R2 = 0.9738) for phase change material, collaborations ranked first, followed by China-United Kingdom
y = 0.944e0.2009x (R2 = 0.9328) for encapsulation, y = 0.0089e0.3219x and United States-Germany. The cooperation network between
(R2 = 0.8577) for nanoencapsulation, and y = 0.027e0.2351x EU countries seems to be very dense. While the US acts like an
(R2 = 0.8124) for miniemulsion polymerization. EU country by building a cooperation network, China has become
One of the important factors to be considered in the bibliomet- the most important partner of the US in terms of international
ric study carried out for scientific publications is the type of publi- cooperation network.
cation. It is known that assessment made by the type of Authors who publish the most on the topic (encapsulation) are
publications both in academic advancement and publication incen- Xiaodong Wang, Yinping Zhang and Ahmet Sarı with 30, 23 and 21
tives in many countries. Fig. 3 shows that the article is the most publications, respectively (Table 4). However, the authors with
frequently used type of research representing above 80% for all most citations are Ahmet Sarı, Cemil Alkan and J.Francisco Rodri-
keywords. 845 articles with ‘encapsulation’, 50 articles with ‘nan guez. It should be noted that these authors have coauthored with
o-encapsulation’, and 131 articles with ‘miniemulsion poly- each other a large number of these papers. Especially, Ahmet Sarı
merization’ keyword were detected. Proceedings are the next most is the most productive author considering the average citations
common publications with totally 127, reviews (totally 63 per article with 69 point.
publications). The top 20 words used in the paper titles are summarized in
Table 3 shows the most prolific countries according to publica- Table 5. During the time period between 1990 and 2015, the most
tions. China is first ranking with the 370 publications (38.06%) frequently preferred word in publication titles is ‘‘phase” (437) and
related to encapsulation with 972 total citations, 25 publications ‘‘change” (413) and ‘‘thermal” (351). In addition to most used
(41.66%) related to nano-encapsulation, and 83 (56.84%) publica- word, the co-occurrence relationships among most frequently used
tions related to miniemulsion polymerization between 1990 and keywords are also visualized (Fig. 5). Keyword analysis in research
2015. The next most productive countries are United States and papers is very interesting in order to follow and search the trends
India, with 253 (5557 TC) and 65 publications (2824 TC), respec- in the science and engineering branches. Keyword analysis was
tively. Despite Turkey produced fewer publications (39), the total carried out with author keywords in the field of encapsulation.
number of received citations of these publications are 2102, more As a result of our work, a total of 8883 different keywords were
than many countries compared to number of publications. It identified from 1990 to 2015 in the field of encapsulation. The
shows that these publications are of a high quality. Besides, Fig. 5 shows that four main clusters (denoted by the green1, blue,
another indicator for publications to measure the quality of yellow and red colours) are characterized by the most used key-
research depending on the number of citations received is h- words in the encapsulation area.
index. The countries with the highest h-index are the China, Uni-
ted States, and United Kingdom. The collaboration between coun-
tries (62 nations) was visualized using Pajek as shown in Fig. 4. 1
For interpretation of color in Fig. 5, the reader is referred to the web version of
Each countries are presented as a node and the size of nodes is this article.
728 A. Yataganbaba et al. / Applied Energy 185 (2017) 720–731

Fig. 6. The top 10 publishing journals (total publications).

Fig. 7. The top 10 publishing journals (reviews).

Fig. 6 presents the 10 most productive journals. There are also Fig. 7. presents the 10 most productive journals based on review
additional journal statistics that are not shown in Fig. 3. Three type publications. Journals were taken into account which have
remarkable journals are: Applied Energy with 39 publications, impact factor above 6. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews
Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells with 31 publications, and is the most preferred journal among others with 14 reviews for ‘en-
Energy and Buildings with 27 publications for ‘‘encapsulation” capsulation’ keyword and 2 reviews for ‘miniemulsion polymeriza-
keyword. Thermochemical Acta, Energy, and Journal of Applied tion’ keyword. According to the impact factor value obtained from
Polymer Science are the leading journals with 3 publications for ‘ Journal Citation ReportsÒ by Thomson Reuters for 2015, Chemical
‘nanoencapsulation” keyword. Applied Energy is the journal which Reviews, Materials Today, Angewandte Chemie, Nano Energy and
has by far the largest number of publications (10) on miniemulsion Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics is scored above 10.
polymerization. According to the impact factor analysis for 2015, Table 6 shows the top 10 institutes’ statistical information
Biomaterials, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews and based on the number of papers according to selected keywords.
Applied Energy is scored above 5. Over 91.89% of the publications Among the top 10 institutes, six originated from the China. It is fol-
were published in English, while only 6.86% were published in Chi- lowed by Turkey, Spain, India and Germany. Compared with
nese. The remainder consisted of publications written in Japanese, Table 2, United States and United Kingdom positioned second
Slovene, and Turkish representing less than 1% each. Similarly, and fourth rank, respectively, however, they had no institutes in
 A. Yataganbaba et al. / Applied Energy 185 (2017) 720–731 729

Table 6
The top 10 productive institutions.

Number of publications TC % of total h-index

(encp.) (encp.) (encp.)
Intuitions (Country) Encapsulation Nanoencapsulation Miniemulsion (R)
polymerization
Tsinghua University (China) 32 2 10 836 18.39 13
South China University of Technology (China) 25 6 12 229 14.36 8
Tianjin Polytechnic University (China) 23 2 8 317 13.22 9
Gaziosmanpasa University (Turkey) 22 1 4 1445 12.64 13
Beijing Uni. of Chemical Technology (China) 20 – 4 653 11.49 11
Nanjing University (China) 18 – 3 348 10.34 11
Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha (Spain) 15 1 2 601 8.6 11
University of Science and Technology (China) 13 2 5 175 7.4 6
Karpagam Institute of Technology (India) 3 3 1 7 1.7 2
Max Plank Institute for Polymer Research 3 2 5 58 1.7 2
(Germany)
Total 174 19 54 4669 100

TC = Total number of citations.

R = Rank, Encp = Encapsulation.
Note: % (Percentage) refers to the ratio of one country’s publications to total number of encapsulation publications.

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