Low-k nano-dielectrics facilitate electric-field induced phase transition in high-k ferroelectric polymers for sustainable electrocaloric refrigeration

Qiang Li; Luqi Wei; Ni Zhong; Xiaoming Shi; Donglin Han; Shanyu Zheng; Feihong Du; Junye Shi; Jiangping Chen; Houbing Huang; Chungang Duan; Xiaoshi Qian

doi:10.1038/s41467-024-44926-8

Low-k nano-dielectrics facilitate electric-field induced phase transition in high-k ferroelectric polymers for sustainable electrocaloric refrigeration

Nat Commun. 2024 Jan 24;15(1):702. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-44926-8.

Authors

Qiang Li¹, Luqi Wei², Ni Zhong², Xiaoming Shi³, Donglin Han¹, Shanyu Zheng¹, Feihong Du¹, Junye Shi¹, Jiangping Chen¹, Houbing Huang³, Chungang Duan², Xiaoshi Qian^{4

5}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Mechanical System and Vibration, Interdisciplinary Research Center, Institute of Refrigeration and Cryogenics, and MOE Key Laboratory for Power Machinery and Engineering, School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China.
² Key Laboratory of Polar Materials and Devices, Ministry of Education, Shanghai Center of Brain-inspired Intelligent Materials and Devices, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200241, China.
³ School of Materials Science and Engineering and Advanced Research Institute of Multidisciplinary Science, Beijing Institute of Technology, 100081, Beijing, China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Mechanical System and Vibration, Interdisciplinary Research Center, Institute of Refrigeration and Cryogenics, and MOE Key Laboratory for Power Machinery and Engineering, School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China. xsqian@sjtu.edu.cn.
⁵ Shanghai Jiao Tong University ZhongGuanCun Research Institute, Liyang, 213300, China. xsqian@sjtu.edu.cn.

Abstract

Ferroelectric polymer-based electrocaloric effect may lead to sustainable heat pumps and refrigeration owing to the large electrocaloric-induced entropy changes, flexible, lightweight and zero-global warming potential. Herein, low-k nanodiamonds are served as extrinsic dielectric fillers to fabricate polymeric nanocomposites for electrocaloric refrigeration. As low-k nanofillers are naturally polar-inactive, hence they have been widely applied for consolidate electrical stability in dielectrics. Interestingly, we observe that the nanodiamonds markedly enhances the electrocaloric effect in relaxor ferroelectrics. Compared with their high-k counterparts that have been extensively studied in the field of electrocaloric nanocomposites, the nanodiamonds introduces the highest volumetric electrocaloric enhancement (~23%/vol%). The resulting polymeric nanocomposite exhibits concurrently improved electrocaloric effect (160%), thermal conductivity (175%) and electrical stability (125%), which allow a fluid-solid coupling-based electrocaloric refrigerator to exhibit an improved coefficient of performance from 0.8 to 5.3 (660%) while maintaining high cooling power (over 240 W) at a temperature span of 10 K.

Abstract

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