Research on xylitol crystallization by shearing and seeding for its use as a phase change material

As thermal energy storage is becoming more important, new materials are being studied. Sugar-alcohols (SA) are very promising as phase change materials (PCM) because they are non-toxic, affordable and their latent heat is high. However, undercooling and low crystallization rates are some of the problems present in these materials. The SA studied in this work is xylitol, and using a microscope connected to a transparent counter-rotating shear cell, the effect of secondary nucleation is studied, as well as the crystallization rate of xylitol and how undercooling affects it. From the results, it is deduced that a proper seed preparation and handling is needed. The crystal structure is also studied, using XRPD diffractograms and differential scanning calorimetry. © 2021 Institute of Physics Publishing. All rights reserved