Highly efficient electrocaloric device based on composite materials with excellent heat transfer performance

Abstract

Electrocaloric (EC) cooling technology is known for its efficiency and simplicity of the electricity-driving method. However, there still are many challenges and problems, i.e., the poor heat transfer of EC materials (polymers), and the limited electrocaloric temperature change, which result in the limited cooling efficiency and/or cooling power of the EC cooling prototypes. The lack of EC device with high cooling performance poses challenging obstacles for the industrial deployment of the EC cooling technology. In this work, we demonstrated that the fabrication of P(VDF-TrFE-CFE) nanocomposites with BaZr0.2Ti0.8O3 (BZT) particles is an efficient way to improve the heat transfer of EC materials without compromising EC capability. In order to valid the positive effect of developing the EC device rather than provide a pure material study, we developed a solid-fluid coupling EC cooling machine numerically. The introduction of BZT composites allows EC refrigeration devices to exhibit a good COP while maintaining a relatively high total cooling power (>150 W) when the temperature span is 10 K. Therefore, the composites exhibit great potential of ECE for future cooling applications.