Record Details

Barocaloric Properties of Thermoplastic Elastomers

Harvard Dataverse (Africa Rice Center, Bioversity International, CCAFS, CIAT, IFPRI, IRRI and WorldFish)

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Title Barocaloric Properties of Thermoplastic Elastomers
 
Identifier https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/LI8M4J
 
Creator Naveen Weerasekera
 
Publisher Harvard Dataverse
 
Description Solid-state refrigeration represents a promising alternative to vapor compression
refrigeration systems which are inefficient, unreliable, and have a high global warming
potential. However, several solid-state cooling technologies—including those relying on a temperature change induced by an applied electric field (electrocaloric effect), magnetic field (magnetocaloric effect), and uniaxial stress (elastocaloric effect)—have been investigated, but their efficiency and scalability remain a concern. Materials with a large barocaloric response—temperature/entropy change induced by hydrostatic
pressure—hold a significant promise for solid-state cooling but remain comparatively
less explored. These materials need to be inexpensive, compressible, and show a large
barocaloric response around the temperature of interest. Soft materials have the potential to meet these requirements and enable the development of low-cost high-efficiency solid state heat pumps. Here, we investigate the barocaloric performance of commercially available block copolymer thermoplastic elastomers. We characterized the mechanical, thermal, and barocaloric properties of these materials and evaluated their potential for solid-state refrigeration. We utilized rheometric measurements to evaluate the isothermal compressibility and normalized refrigerant capacity of the thermoplastic elastomers. In addition, we directly measured the pressure-induced temperature change of the test materials and compared them with their normalized refrigeration capacity. The measured isothermal compressibility was in the 0.1–0.4 GPa−1 range, while the normalized refrigeration capacity varied between 13.2 and 41.9 kJ K−1 GPa−1 for a 100 MPa applied pressure and 65°C temperature span. The corresponding pressure-induced temperature change for an applied pressure of 434.1 MPa varied between 2.2 and 28°C. These results demonstrated the superior barocaloric properties of thermoplastic elastomers and their promise for next generation barocaloric solid-state refrigeration devices.
 
Subject Engineering
Physics
solid state cooling
barocaloric effect
thermoplastic elastomers
material characterization
rheology
pvT measurements
thermal conductivity of thermoplastic elastomers
next generation refrigeration processes
 
Contributor Weerasekera, Naveen D