- Email: [email protected]
Fabrication and characterization of phase change composite materials via xylitol infiltrating aligned alumina template
Accepted Manuscript Fabrication and characterization of phase change composite materials via xylitol infiltrating aligned alumina template Peng He, Guoqiang Niu, Liang Zhou, Wenjie Li, Xin Zhang, Fei He PII: DOI: Reference:
S0167-577X(18)31267-9 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matlet.2018.08.064 MLBLUE 24775
To appear in:
Materials Letters
Received Date: Revised Date: Accepted Date:
7 July 2018 2 August 2018 12 August 2018
Please cite this article as: P. He, G. Niu, L. Zhou, W. Li, X. Zhang, F. He, Fabrication and characterization of phase change composite materials via xylitol infiltrating aligned alumina template, Materials Letters (2018), doi: https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.matlet.2018.08.064
This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
Fabrication and characterization of phase change composite materials via xylitol infiltrating aligned alumina template
Peng He1, Guoqiang Niu2,3, Liang Zhou2,3, Wenjie Li2,3, Xin Zhang2,3, Fei He2,3* 1
2
Department of physical education, Taiyuan Institute of Technology, P. R. China
National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Advanced Composites in Special Environments, Harbin Institute of Technology, P. R. China
3
Center for Composite Materials and Structures, Harbin Institute of Technology, P. R. China
*
Corresponding author, email: [email protected]; Tel./fax: +86-451-86402928.
Abstract: The phase change composite materials (PCCMs) were firstly fabricated via xylitol infiltrating aligned alumina template (AT). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetric analysis (DSC-TG) were used to investigate the microstructures and phase change characteristics. The high viscosity melting xylitol can be completely infiltrated into the micron-level parallel pore channels AT, which is an effective method to obtain shape-stabilized PCCMs. Keywords: phase change composite materials; xylitol; aligned alumina template; infiltration; thermal properties; porous materials 1. Introduction Solid-liquid phase change materials (PCMs) are provided with great significance for improving energy utilization efficiency due to their high heat storage density, and can been applied in many fields, such as solar energy device [1], thermal management system [2], textile and clothing [3], building wall [4], and so on. Among of them, organic PCMs are promising low temperature latent heat storage materials in the temperature range from -5 ℃ to 190 ℃ [3,5-7]. During the course of solid-liquid 1
phase change, however, PCMs confronted with the challenges of liquid leakage and form instability. The encapsulation of PCMs is adopted to overcome these disadvantages. Generally, there are three patterns to realize encapsulation, i.e. PCMs infiltrated into porous carbon or metal templates [8,9], microencapsulation by forming micro/nano core-shell structures [5,10,11] and shape-stabilized PCMs by compositing low-melting-point PCMs into high-melting-point macromolecule materials [12]. It is apparent that the second materials need to be introduced acting as supporting skeleton and/or protective matrix in order to realize the application of PCMs, especially for solid-liquid PCMs. In this report, we first explore the phase change composite materials (PCCMs) via xylitol infiltrating aligned alumina template (AT). It is beneficial to increase the ratio of liquid impregnation and obtain shape-stabilized PCCMs supported by the parallel pore channels AT. 2. Experiment Materials: Aluminum sec-butoxide (ASB), hydroxy ethyl cellulose (HEC), alumina powder, xylitol and nitric acid were used as raw materials and chemical reagents. All of the reagents were analytical grade and used as received without further purification. Fabrication of aligned AT: ASB was used as aluminum precursor and mixed with deionized water (DW) as the molar ratio of ASB: DW=1: 60 at 90 ºC. 0.2 mol/L nitric acid (DW as solvent) was used as peptizing solvent to adjust pH value to 2~3 after ASB dissolving in DW. The solution was refluxed under vigorous stirring at 90 ºC for 10 h and pale blue transparent alumina hydrosol (AH) was obtained. Then, HEC was dispersed in AH as binders to enhance the formability of AT [13]. The mass ratio of HEC and AH was 1.5: 100. In the meantime, alumina powder was added to adjust alumina content to 15 wt.% in the slurry. The slurry was poured into the tube-like polytetrafluoroethylene mold whose bottom was sealed by copper sheet and touched with -60 ºC frozen source. After unidirectional frozen, 2
the solid slurry was dried in the freeze dryer at ~100 Pa and -60 ºC for 2~3 days to obtain AT. Fabrication of PCCMs: Two methods were adopted to infiltrate xylitol into AT. The first is that xylitol was adequately dissolved in DW as the mass ratio of xylitol: DW=4: 5 and then infiltrated into AT at room temperature. The composite was frozen and dried in the freeze dryer to obtain the sample named PCCMs-1. The second is that xylitol was melt at 120 ºC and then directly infiltrated into AT to obtain the sample named PCCMs-2. Fig. 1 shows the processing route schematic of PCCMs via these two methods. Characterization: The micro-morphologies were surveyed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM, SU8000, Japan). The samples were sputter-coated with a thin layer of Au before observed. Viscosity values of saturated xylitol aqueous solution and melting xylitol were measured by viscometer (NDJ-9S, Shanghai Performance Tai Electronic Technology Co., China), respectively. The densities of AT and PCCMs were determined by mass and volume. Porosity of AT is obtained by automatic mercury porosimeter (Autopore IV 9500, USA). Phase change characteristics and mass-loss behaviors were performed by using differential scanning calorimetery and thermogravimetry (DSC-TG) simultaneous thermal analyzer (STA449C, NETZSCH, Germany) in nitrogen atmosphere heated from 30 ºC~120 ºC at constant heating rate 5 ºC /min. In order to evaluate the leakage of PCCMs, filter paper was placed under the sample surface to adsorb the leaked. The leakage tests of PCCMs were performed at 110 ºC in an oven for 5 h. The mass of sample was recorded at intervals of 30 min. The leakage rate (Lr) was defined as a mass change percentage of PCCMs before and after the leakage test. 3. Results and discussion Fig. 2 shows the cross and longitudinal SEM morphologies of AT, PCCMs-1 and PCCMs-2, respectively. AT possesses typical ice-crystal growth pore structures. In the longitudinal direction, as 3
shown in Fig. 2(b), the solid particles in the slurry are ejected from the growing lamellar ice and construct long parallel pore walls. In the cross direction, however, as shown in Fig. 2(a), the gaps between two adjacent lamellae pore walls are bridged, which constructs honeycomb-like channels. The micron-level parallel porous structures are beneficial to be infiltrated by high viscosity liquid. Here, the viscosity of saturated xylitol aqueous solution and melting xylitol is 1.1 mPa·s (room temperature) and 43 mPa·s (120 ºC), respectively. The viscosity of melting xylitol is even up to 159 mPa·s at 92.6 ºC, which is too high to be infiltrated into AT. After infiltrated by xylitol, as shown in Fig. 2(c) and (d), it is obvious for PCCMs-1 that some of pores are not filled by xylitol and the deformation of pore walls occurs because of the water solution removed. The sample picture of PCCMs-1 reveals fluctuant surface due to infiltration nonuniformity. In addition, it is disadvantage for PCCMs-1 to generate second ice-crystal phenomenon of water in saturated xylitol aqueous solution, which perhaps results in the destruction of solid AT due to large volume expansion during frozen process. However, the channels of PCCMs-2 are enough sealed by xylitol as shown in Fig. 2(e) and (f). The properties parameters of AT, xylitol, PCCMs-1 and PCCM-2 are listed in Table 1. Here, infiltration ratio of xylitol (ψ) and volume expansion ratio of PCCMs (α) is determined by Eq.(1) and Eq.(2), respectively.
mass of PCCMs mass of AT xylitol P volume of PCCMs
100%
volume of PCCMs volume of AT 100% volume of AT
(1)
(2)
where P is porosity of AT measured by mercury intrusion method, P=94.85%, ρxylitol is the density of melting xylitol. According to the table 1, it can be confirmed that PCCMs-2 renders higher ψ and lower α than those of PCCMs-1, which indicates that melting xylitol almost completely infiltrates into AT and PCCMs-2 4
renders better efficiency of infiltration. Meanwhile, low α for PCCMs-2 is beneficial to maintain the integrality of AT and further prevent from melting xylitol leakage. The DSC-TG curves and leakage rate curves of xylitol, PCCMs-1 and PCCMs-2 are shown in Fig. 3 and corresponding parameters are listed in Table 1. First, the percentage of mass loss (mloss) is the highest for PCCMs-1 due to water evaporation. Second, the melting temperature (Tm) of PCCMs is hardly influenced by AT. Third, after infiltrating xylitol, the latent heat value (ΔH) declines and the latent heat ratio in PCCMs (η’) can be obtained by comparing ΔH of PCCMs with that of xylitol. Meanwhile, the mass percentage of xylitol in PCCMs (η) can be calculated by Eq. (3).
mass of PCCMs mass of AT mass of PCCMs
100%
(3)
The values of η and η’ are approximately equal, which means that the ΔH of PCCMs can be estimated by calculating η. In addition, the declined percentage of ΔH due to the role of AT is less than 20 % for PCCMs-2. The weak influence of AT for ΔH is favorable to realize encapsulation of solid-liquid PCMs. The method of melting xylitol infiltration is more effective to fabricate PCCMs constructed by aligned AT. The results of leakage rate of PCCMs-1 and PCCMs-2 at 110 ºC for 5 h show that PCCMs maintains the shape stability and PCCMs-2 is provided with lower leakage than the one of PCCMs-1. In fact, the micro-level parallel pore channels of AT are convenient to be infiltrated by organic PCM, even high viscosity PCM. Due to capillary action, it is difficult for the infiltrated PCM to leakage from micro-level pore channels. In addition, AT can provide a shape-stabilized support for PCM and the HEC in AT plays a role to enhance the formability of AT. 4. Conclusions The PCCMs were firstly fabricated via xylitol infiltrating aligned AT. The micron-level parallel pore 5
channels are convenient to infiltrate high viscosity melting xylitol. The influence of AT on ΔH is weak. After heating PCCMs at 110 ºC, PCCMs-2 has lower leakage than the one of PCCMs-1. The melt infiltration method possesses higher infiltration ratio and is more effective to obtain shape-stabilized PCCMs. In addition, the method adopted in our paper can be generalized to other similar organic PCMs. Acknowledgement We thank the Foundation for Innovative Research Groups of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 11421091) for financial support. References
6
[16]
7
Fig. 1 Processing route schematic of PCCMs via two methods
8
a
b
100μm
100μm
d
c
100μm
100μm
f
e
100μm
100μm
Fig. 2 The SEM morphologies of AT (a,b), PCCMs-1 (c,d) and PCCMs-2 (e,f). The left side is cross section pictures and the right one is longitudinal section pictures.
9
100.2
(a)
TG 100.0
1.2
99.8
Heat flow (mW/mg)
0.9
xylitol PCCMs-1 PCCMs-2
0.6
99.6 99.4
0.3
99.2
Mass percentage (%)
Endo
1.5
DSC 0.0
99.0
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
110
98.8 120
Temperature(℃)
4.0
(b) PCCMs-1
3.5 3.0
PCCMs-1
PCCMs-2
Lr (%)
2.5 2.0 1.5 PCCMs-2
1.0 0.5 0.0
0
1
2
3
4
5
Time (h)
Fig.3 The DSC-TG curves (a) and leakage rate curves (b) of xylitol, PCCMs-1 and PCCMs-2
10
Table 1 The properties parameters of AT, xylitol, PCCMs-1 and PCCM-2 Density
ψ
α
η
Tm
ΔH
η'
mloss
Lr
(g/cm3)
(%)
(%)
(%)
(ºC)
(J/K)
(%)
(%)
(%)
AT
0.204
−
−
−
−
−
−
−
−
xylitol
1.374(melt)
−
−
−
91.08
180
−
0
−
PCCMs-1
0.672
55.40
16.92
74.0
91.60
123
68.3
1.1
3.92 (5 h)
PCCMs-2
1.445
100.14
7.37
86.4
91.50
151
83.9
0.1
1.56 (5 h)
samples
Highlights
The phase change composite materials (PCCMs) were firstly fabricated via xylitol infiltrating aligned alumina template (AT).
The micron-level parallel pore channels of AT are beneficial to infiltrate high viscosity melting xylitol.
The infiltrating melting xylitol into AT is an effective method to obtain shape-stabilized PCCMs.
11
S0167-577X(18)31267-9 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matlet.2018.08.064 MLBLUE 24775
To appear in:
Materials Letters
Received Date: Revised Date: Accepted Date:
7 July 2018 2 August 2018 12 August 2018
Please cite this article as: P. He, G. Niu, L. Zhou, W. Li, X. Zhang, F. He, Fabrication and characterization of phase change composite materials via xylitol infiltrating aligned alumina template, Materials Letters (2018), doi: https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.matlet.2018.08.064
This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
Fabrication and characterization of phase change composite materials via xylitol infiltrating aligned alumina template
Peng He1, Guoqiang Niu2,3, Liang Zhou2,3, Wenjie Li2,3, Xin Zhang2,3, Fei He2,3* 1
2
Department of physical education, Taiyuan Institute of Technology, P. R. China
National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Advanced Composites in Special Environments, Harbin Institute of Technology, P. R. China
3
Center for Composite Materials and Structures, Harbin Institute of Technology, P. R. China
*
Corresponding author, email: [email protected]; Tel./fax: +86-451-86402928.
Abstract: The phase change composite materials (PCCMs) were firstly fabricated via xylitol infiltrating aligned alumina template (AT). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetric analysis (DSC-TG) were used to investigate the microstructures and phase change characteristics. The high viscosity melting xylitol can be completely infiltrated into the micron-level parallel pore channels AT, which is an effective method to obtain shape-stabilized PCCMs. Keywords: phase change composite materials; xylitol; aligned alumina template; infiltration; thermal properties; porous materials 1. Introduction Solid-liquid phase change materials (PCMs) are provided with great significance for improving energy utilization efficiency due to their high heat storage density, and can been applied in many fields, such as solar energy device [1], thermal management system [2], textile and clothing [3], building wall [4], and so on. Among of them, organic PCMs are promising low temperature latent heat storage materials in the temperature range from -5 ℃ to 190 ℃ [3,5-7]. During the course of solid-liquid 1
phase change, however, PCMs confronted with the challenges of liquid leakage and form instability. The encapsulation of PCMs is adopted to overcome these disadvantages. Generally, there are three patterns to realize encapsulation, i.e. PCMs infiltrated into porous carbon or metal templates [8,9], microencapsulation by forming micro/nano core-shell structures [5,10,11] and shape-stabilized PCMs by compositing low-melting-point PCMs into high-melting-point macromolecule materials [12]. It is apparent that the second materials need to be introduced acting as supporting skeleton and/or protective matrix in order to realize the application of PCMs, especially for solid-liquid PCMs. In this report, we first explore the phase change composite materials (PCCMs) via xylitol infiltrating aligned alumina template (AT). It is beneficial to increase the ratio of liquid impregnation and obtain shape-stabilized PCCMs supported by the parallel pore channels AT. 2. Experiment Materials: Aluminum sec-butoxide (ASB), hydroxy ethyl cellulose (HEC), alumina powder, xylitol and nitric acid were used as raw materials and chemical reagents. All of the reagents were analytical grade and used as received without further purification. Fabrication of aligned AT: ASB was used as aluminum precursor and mixed with deionized water (DW) as the molar ratio of ASB: DW=1: 60 at 90 ºC. 0.2 mol/L nitric acid (DW as solvent) was used as peptizing solvent to adjust pH value to 2~3 after ASB dissolving in DW. The solution was refluxed under vigorous stirring at 90 ºC for 10 h and pale blue transparent alumina hydrosol (AH) was obtained. Then, HEC was dispersed in AH as binders to enhance the formability of AT [13]. The mass ratio of HEC and AH was 1.5: 100. In the meantime, alumina powder was added to adjust alumina content to 15 wt.% in the slurry. The slurry was poured into the tube-like polytetrafluoroethylene mold whose bottom was sealed by copper sheet and touched with -60 ºC frozen source. After unidirectional frozen, 2
the solid slurry was dried in the freeze dryer at ~100 Pa and -60 ºC for 2~3 days to obtain AT. Fabrication of PCCMs: Two methods were adopted to infiltrate xylitol into AT. The first is that xylitol was adequately dissolved in DW as the mass ratio of xylitol: DW=4: 5 and then infiltrated into AT at room temperature. The composite was frozen and dried in the freeze dryer to obtain the sample named PCCMs-1. The second is that xylitol was melt at 120 ºC and then directly infiltrated into AT to obtain the sample named PCCMs-2. Fig. 1 shows the processing route schematic of PCCMs via these two methods. Characterization: The micro-morphologies were surveyed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM, SU8000, Japan). The samples were sputter-coated with a thin layer of Au before observed. Viscosity values of saturated xylitol aqueous solution and melting xylitol were measured by viscometer (NDJ-9S, Shanghai Performance Tai Electronic Technology Co., China), respectively. The densities of AT and PCCMs were determined by mass and volume. Porosity of AT is obtained by automatic mercury porosimeter (Autopore IV 9500, USA). Phase change characteristics and mass-loss behaviors were performed by using differential scanning calorimetery and thermogravimetry (DSC-TG) simultaneous thermal analyzer (STA449C, NETZSCH, Germany) in nitrogen atmosphere heated from 30 ºC~120 ºC at constant heating rate 5 ºC /min. In order to evaluate the leakage of PCCMs, filter paper was placed under the sample surface to adsorb the leaked. The leakage tests of PCCMs were performed at 110 ºC in an oven for 5 h. The mass of sample was recorded at intervals of 30 min. The leakage rate (Lr) was defined as a mass change percentage of PCCMs before and after the leakage test. 3. Results and discussion Fig. 2 shows the cross and longitudinal SEM morphologies of AT, PCCMs-1 and PCCMs-2, respectively. AT possesses typical ice-crystal growth pore structures. In the longitudinal direction, as 3
shown in Fig. 2(b), the solid particles in the slurry are ejected from the growing lamellar ice and construct long parallel pore walls. In the cross direction, however, as shown in Fig. 2(a), the gaps between two adjacent lamellae pore walls are bridged, which constructs honeycomb-like channels. The micron-level parallel porous structures are beneficial to be infiltrated by high viscosity liquid. Here, the viscosity of saturated xylitol aqueous solution and melting xylitol is 1.1 mPa·s (room temperature) and 43 mPa·s (120 ºC), respectively. The viscosity of melting xylitol is even up to 159 mPa·s at 92.6 ºC, which is too high to be infiltrated into AT. After infiltrated by xylitol, as shown in Fig. 2(c) and (d), it is obvious for PCCMs-1 that some of pores are not filled by xylitol and the deformation of pore walls occurs because of the water solution removed. The sample picture of PCCMs-1 reveals fluctuant surface due to infiltration nonuniformity. In addition, it is disadvantage for PCCMs-1 to generate second ice-crystal phenomenon of water in saturated xylitol aqueous solution, which perhaps results in the destruction of solid AT due to large volume expansion during frozen process. However, the channels of PCCMs-2 are enough sealed by xylitol as shown in Fig. 2(e) and (f). The properties parameters of AT, xylitol, PCCMs-1 and PCCM-2 are listed in Table 1. Here, infiltration ratio of xylitol (ψ) and volume expansion ratio of PCCMs (α) is determined by Eq.(1) and Eq.(2), respectively.
mass of PCCMs mass of AT xylitol P volume of PCCMs
100%
volume of PCCMs volume of AT 100% volume of AT
(1)
(2)
where P is porosity of AT measured by mercury intrusion method, P=94.85%, ρxylitol is the density of melting xylitol. According to the table 1, it can be confirmed that PCCMs-2 renders higher ψ and lower α than those of PCCMs-1, which indicates that melting xylitol almost completely infiltrates into AT and PCCMs-2 4
renders better efficiency of infiltration. Meanwhile, low α for PCCMs-2 is beneficial to maintain the integrality of AT and further prevent from melting xylitol leakage. The DSC-TG curves and leakage rate curves of xylitol, PCCMs-1 and PCCMs-2 are shown in Fig. 3 and corresponding parameters are listed in Table 1. First, the percentage of mass loss (mloss) is the highest for PCCMs-1 due to water evaporation. Second, the melting temperature (Tm) of PCCMs is hardly influenced by AT. Third, after infiltrating xylitol, the latent heat value (ΔH) declines and the latent heat ratio in PCCMs (η’) can be obtained by comparing ΔH of PCCMs with that of xylitol. Meanwhile, the mass percentage of xylitol in PCCMs (η) can be calculated by Eq. (3).
mass of PCCMs mass of AT mass of PCCMs
100%
(3)
The values of η and η’ are approximately equal, which means that the ΔH of PCCMs can be estimated by calculating η. In addition, the declined percentage of ΔH due to the role of AT is less than 20 % for PCCMs-2. The weak influence of AT for ΔH is favorable to realize encapsulation of solid-liquid PCMs. The method of melting xylitol infiltration is more effective to fabricate PCCMs constructed by aligned AT. The results of leakage rate of PCCMs-1 and PCCMs-2 at 110 ºC for 5 h show that PCCMs maintains the shape stability and PCCMs-2 is provided with lower leakage than the one of PCCMs-1. In fact, the micro-level parallel pore channels of AT are convenient to be infiltrated by organic PCM, even high viscosity PCM. Due to capillary action, it is difficult for the infiltrated PCM to leakage from micro-level pore channels. In addition, AT can provide a shape-stabilized support for PCM and the HEC in AT plays a role to enhance the formability of AT. 4. Conclusions The PCCMs were firstly fabricated via xylitol infiltrating aligned AT. The micron-level parallel pore 5
channels are convenient to infiltrate high viscosity melting xylitol. The influence of AT on ΔH is weak. After heating PCCMs at 110 ºC, PCCMs-2 has lower leakage than the one of PCCMs-1. The melt infiltration method possesses higher infiltration ratio and is more effective to obtain shape-stabilized PCCMs. In addition, the method adopted in our paper can be generalized to other similar organic PCMs. Acknowledgement We thank the Foundation for Innovative Research Groups of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 11421091) for financial support. References
6
[16]
7
Fig. 1 Processing route schematic of PCCMs via two methods
8
a
b
100μm
100μm
d
c
100μm
100μm
f
e
100μm
100μm
Fig. 2 The SEM morphologies of AT (a,b), PCCMs-1 (c,d) and PCCMs-2 (e,f). The left side is cross section pictures and the right one is longitudinal section pictures.
9
100.2
(a)
TG 100.0
1.2
99.8
Heat flow (mW/mg)
0.9
xylitol PCCMs-1 PCCMs-2
0.6
99.6 99.4
0.3
99.2
Mass percentage (%)
Endo
1.5
DSC 0.0
99.0
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
110
98.8 120
Temperature(℃)
4.0
(b) PCCMs-1
3.5 3.0
PCCMs-1
PCCMs-2
Lr (%)
2.5 2.0 1.5 PCCMs-2
1.0 0.5 0.0
0
1
2
3
4
5
Time (h)
Fig.3 The DSC-TG curves (a) and leakage rate curves (b) of xylitol, PCCMs-1 and PCCMs-2
10
Table 1 The properties parameters of AT, xylitol, PCCMs-1 and PCCM-2 Density
ψ
α
η
Tm
ΔH
η'
mloss
Lr
(g/cm3)
(%)
(%)
(%)
(ºC)
(J/K)
(%)
(%)
(%)
AT
0.204
−
−
−
−
−
−
−
−
xylitol
1.374(melt)
−
−
−
91.08
180
−
0
−
PCCMs-1
0.672
55.40
16.92
74.0
91.60
123
68.3
1.1
3.92 (5 h)
PCCMs-2
1.445
100.14
7.37
86.4
91.50
151
83.9
0.1
1.56 (5 h)
samples
Highlights
The phase change composite materials (PCCMs) were firstly fabricated via xylitol infiltrating aligned alumina template (AT).
The micron-level parallel pore channels of AT are beneficial to infiltrate high viscosity melting xylitol.
The infiltrating melting xylitol into AT is an effective method to obtain shape-stabilized PCCMs.
11