Characterisation of erythritol as a potential phase change material

Erythritol ((2 R,3S)-Butane-1,2,3,4-tetrol) is being considered as a phase change material (PCM) of interest owing to its potential applicability for solar thermal applications. But however, lack of inclusive material characterisation outcomes drives the need to bridge this research gap. In this study, erythritol was subjected to both chemical and thermal characterisation investigations. X-ray diffractometry (XRD) investigation estimated the degree of crystallinity to be 73.48% and the crystallite size to be 38.79 nm. The fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) investigation has identified -OH, -C-H and -CH2 to be the major functional groups. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) investigation visualised the crystalline architecture of the PCM. The energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDAX) investigation quantified the composition of C and O in the eclectic constituency. The UV-visible spectrophotometry investigations confirmed that erythritol could be utilised for direct solar thermal applications. The thermal characterisation investigations rendered the latent heat of the PCM to be 333.48 kJ kg−1 and its peak melting temperature to be 118.18°C. The thermal stability investigations estimated the latent heat loss per cycle to be 1.1451 kJ kg−1.