Disclosed are methods for incorporating core materials such as phase change materials or admixtures into building materials like concrete. The methods use cenospheres, which are then etched and loaded with the core material. The composition can also be coated with a thin film. Compositions containing cenospheres loaded with the various core materials are disclosed, as are building materials containing such compositions.

A porous honeycomb heat storage structure including: a honeycomb structure which has a porous partition wall which defines a plurality of cells extending one end face to the other end face and allows a reaction medium to flow into the cells; and a heat storage portion which is configured by filling a heat storage material performing heat storage and heat dissipation by a reversible chemical reaction with the reaction medium or physical adsorption/desorption in at least a portion of each cells, wherein the heat storage portion has an area ratio in a range from 60% to 90% with respect to a cross sectional area of a honeycomb cross section orthogonal to an axial direction of the honeycomb structure.

A porous honeycomb heat storage structure including: a honeycomb structure which has a porous partition wall which defines a plurality of cells extending one end face to the other end face and allows a reaction medium to flow into the cells; and a heat storage portion which is configured by filling a heat storage material performing heat storage and heat dissipation by a reversible chemical reaction with the reaction medium or physical adsorption/desorption in at least a portion of each cells, wherein the heat storage portion has an area ratio in a range from 60% to 90% with respect to a cross sectional area of a honeycomb cross section orthogonal to an axial direction of the honeycomb structure.

A method of sealing propagating cracks in a sensor-laden cement sheath comprising the steps of monitoring an electrical resistivity of the sensor-laden cement sheath to produce a measured value, wherein the sensor-laden cement sheath comprises a conductive sensor, an on-demand expanding agent, and a cement, activating a heat source when the measured value of the electrical resistivity is greater than an activation threshold, increasing a temperature of the sensor-laden cement sheath with the heat source to an activation temperature, wherein the activation temperature is operable to initiate a reaction between the on-demand expanding agent and water, wherein the activation temperature is greater than a formation temperature, reacting the on-demand expanding agent with water to produce a swelled agent, wherein the swelled agent occupies a greater volume than the on-demand expanding agent, and sealing the propagating cracks in the sensor-laden cement sheath with the swelled agent.

A method of sealing propagating cracks in a sensor-laden cement sheath comprising the steps of monitoring an electrical resistivity of the sensor-laden cement sheath to produce a measured value, wherein the sensor-laden cement sheath comprises a conductive sensor, an on-demand expanding agent, and a cement, activating a heat source when the measured value of the electrical resistivity is greater than an activation threshold, increasing a temperature of the sensor-laden cement sheath with the heat source to an activation temperature, wherein the activation temperature is operable to initiate a reaction between the on-demand expanding agent and water, wherein the activation temperature is greater than a formation temperature, reacting the on-demand expanding agent with water to produce a swelled agent, wherein the swelled agent occupies a greater volume than the on-demand expanding agent, and sealing the propagating cracks in the sensor-laden cement sheath with the swelled agent.

The invention relates to a composite material based on boron nitride (BN(C)) in the form of a continuous structure; and a phase change material (PCM) incorporated within said continuous BN(C) structure and is embedded within a polymer layer, a process for manufacturing same, and the components that comprise same.

The invention relates to a composite material based on boron nitride (BN(C)) in the form of a continuous structure; and a phase change material (PCM) incorporated within said continuous BN(C) structure and is embedded within a polymer layer, a process for manufacturing same, and the components that comprise same.

Disclosed herein are phase change materials microencapsulated by a microcapsule having two shells, the first shell (directly encapsulating the phase change material) being an organic polymeric material and the second shell (an outer shell) being made from a doped TiO.sub.2 material. The microcapsules disclosed herein may be particularly useful for improving the energy efficiency of indoor environments, as well as providing compositions that they are applied to (e.g. paints) with self-cleaning properties.

The invention relates to a method for producing thermal energy storage components comprising phase change material embedded into porous components, in particular for use in cement-based compositions. The method comprises: an impregnation step (10) comprising introducing phase change material into porous components inside a main vessel (102) by vacuum impregnation; an injection step (12) at a temperature within a melting temperature range of said phase change material and under an overpressure, in order vacuuming to force the phase change material into the porous components; and an entrapment step (14) comprising reducing the temperature inside the main vessel, while maintaining an the overpressure, in order to lower the viscosity of said phase change material.

A batch composition containing pre-reacted inorganic spheroidal particles and pore- former spheroidal particles. The pre-reacted inorganic spheroidal particles have a particle size distribution wherein 10 mDI.sub.50<50 m, and DIb2.0, and the pore-former spheroidal particles have a particle size distribution wherein 0.40 DP.sub.50DI.sub.50<0.90 DP.sub.50, and DPb1.32, wherein DI50 is a median particle diameter of the distribution of pre-reacted inorganic spheroidal particles, DP.sub.50 is a median particle diameter of the pore-former particle size distribution, DIb is a breadth factor of the pre-reacted particle size distribution of the pre- reacted inorganic spheroidal particles, and DPb is a breadth factor of the pore-former particle size distribution. Also, green honeycomb bodies manufactured from the batch compositions, and methods of manufacturing a honeycomb body using the batch compositions, are provided.