Large electrocaloric effect in ferroelectric polymers near room temperature

Bret Neese, Baojin Chu, Sheng Guo Lu, Yong Wang, E. Furman, Q. M. Zhang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1059 Scopus citations

Abstract

Applying an electrical field to a polar polymer may induce a large change in the dipolar ordering, and if the associated entropy changes are large, they can be explored in cooling applications. With the use of the Maxwell relation between the pyroelectric coefficient and the electrocaloric effect (ECE), it was determined that a large ECE can be realized in the ferroelectric poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) [P(VDF-TrFE)] copolymer at temperatures above the ferroelectric-paraelectric transition (above 70°C), where an isothermal entropy change of more than 55 joules per kilogram per kelvin degree and adiabatic temperature change of more than 12°C were observed. We further showed that a similar level of ECE near room temperature can be achieved by working with the relaxor ferroelectric polymer of P(VDF-TrFE-chlorofluoroethylene).

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)821-823
Number of pages3
JournalScience
Volume321
Issue number5890
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 8 2008

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General

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