Zhang Shixian, Fu Yuheng, Nie Xinxing, Li Chenjian, Zhou Youshuang, Wang Yaqi, Yi Juan, Xia Wenlai, Song Yiheng, Li Qi, Xiong Chuanxi, Qian Suxin, Yang Quanling, Wang Qing
State Key Laboratory of Silicate Materials for Architectures, and School of Materials Science and Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA.
Nat Commun. 2024 Aug 3;15(1):6567. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-50870-4.
Room-temperature elastocaloric cooling is considered as a zero-global-warming-potential alternative to conventional vapor-compression refrigeration technology. However, the limited entropy and large-deformation features of elastocaloric polymers hinder the creation of the breakthrough in their caloric responses and device development. Herein, we report that the addition of a small amount of inorganic nanofillers into the polymer induces the aggregate of the effective elastic chains via shearing the interlaminar molecular chains, which provides an additional contribution to the entropy in elastocaloric polymers. Consequently, the adiabatic temperature change of -18.0 K and the isothermal entropy change of 187.4 J kg K achieved in the polymer nanocomposites outperform those of current elastocaloric polymers. Moreover, a large-deformation cooling system with a work recovery efficiency of 56.3% is demonstrated. This work opens a new avenue for the development of high-performance elastocaloric polymers and prototypes for solid-state cooling applications.
室温弹性热制冷被认为是一种全球变暖潜力为零的传统蒸汽压缩制冷技术的替代方案。然而，弹性热聚合物有限的熵和大变形特性阻碍了其在热响应和器件开发方面取得突破。在此，我们报道在聚合物中添加少量无机纳米填料会通过剪切层间分子链诱导有效弹性链的聚集，这为弹性热聚合物的熵提供了额外贡献。因此，聚合物纳米复合材料实现的 -18.0 K 的绝热温度变化和 187.4 J kg K 的等温熵变优于目前的弹性热聚合物。此外，还展示了一种工作回收效率为 56.3% 的大变形冷却系统。这项工作为高性能弹性热聚合物的开发以及固态冷却应用的原型开辟了一条新途径。
