Enhanced electrocaloric efficiency via energy recovery

Materials that show large and reversible electrically driven thermal changes near phase transitions have been proposed for cooling applications, but energy efficiency has barely been explored. Here we reveal that most of the work done to drive representative electrocaloric cycles does not pump heat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications 2018-05, Vol.9 (1), p.1827-9, Article 1827
Main Authors: Defay, E., Faye, R., Despesse, G., Strozyk, H., Sette, D., Crossley, S., Moya, X., Mathur, N. D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/301/119/996
639/4077/4072
639/766/530/951
Barium titanates
Capacitors
Charge transfer
Cooling
Diodes
Energy efficiency
Energy recovery
Engineering Sciences
Heat
Humanities and Social Sciences
Materials recovery
Micro and nanotechnologies
Microelectronics
multidisciplinary
Phase transitions
Power efficiency
Prototypes
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
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Summary:Materials that show large and reversible electrically driven thermal changes near phase transitions have been proposed for cooling applications, but energy efficiency has barely been explored. Here we reveal that most of the work done to drive representative electrocaloric cycles does not pump heat and may therefore be recovered. Initially, we recover 75–80% of the work done each time BaTiO 3 -based multilayer capacitors drive electrocaloric effects in each other via an inductor (diodes prevent electrical resonance while heat flows after each charge transfer). For a prototype refrigerator with 24 such capacitors, recovering 65% of the work done to drive electrocaloric effects increases the coefficient of performance by a factor of 2.9. The coefficient of performance is subsequently increased by reducing the pumped heat and recovering more work. Our strategy mitigates the advantage held by magnetocaloric prototypes that exploit automatic energy recovery, and should be mandatory in future electrocaloric cooling devices. Electrocaloric materials can be electrically driven to pump heat and hold promise for use in efficient solid-state refrigeration. Here, the authors demonstrate an approach to recycle recoverable energy from electrocaloric cycles, offering a method to enhance performance in electrocaloric refrigeration systems.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/s41467-018-04027-9