May 3 2016
Researchers from the University of Valencia have predicted a new series of materials that have potential in solid-state cooling applications.
Daniel Errandonea, researcher at the Universitat de València (Credit: Universitat de València)
The results of the study have been reported in the journal, Nanoletters.
Historically, scientists have been utilizing solid-state cooling techniques as a substitute to conventional refrigeration methods, which only depend on pollutant gases. When compared to traditional techniques, solid-state cooling is four times less efficient and does not provide much scope from the efficiency viewpoint. The preferred mechano-caloric effects have been seen only in superelastic metal alloys and ferroelectric materials, which are known to be costly and rare materials.
Given the latest study on the new series of materials, the quest for better efficient materials may have come to an end. Physicists Claudio Cazorla from the School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales (Australia), and Daniel Errandonea from the UV’s Institute of Material Science (ICMUV) have predicted that fluorite (CaF2), an ion conducting material, may have a greater mechano-caloric effect than that of the ferroelectric group. In light of this observation, ion conductors now appear as a new series of materials that show potential in solid-state cooling applications.
The good news is that fluorite is abundantly available in nature, with deposits of this material found in a number of countries, including Spain. The study also establishes the association between ionic transport and external mechanical tension in ion conductors by using quantum mechanics calculations and molecular dynamics - a computer simulation technique used for investigating the physical motions of molecules and atoms.
According to the study, when pressure is applied to the material, it provides an efficient way to alter the crucial temperature in superionic compounds, also known as fast ion conductors.
These latest results provide a promising means to a viable design of green cooling technologies, which are more efficient, ecological, and cost-effective than that of traditional cooling techniques. Such technologies also hold major implications for designing solid-state batteries in the future.