Materials with Giant Mechanocaloric Effects: Cooling by Strength

The search for materials with large caloric effects has become a major challenge in material science due to their potential in developing near room-temperature solid-state cooling devices, which are both efficient and clean, and that can successfully replace present refrigeration technologies. There are three main families of caloric materials: magnetocaloric, electrocaloric, and mechanocaloric. While magnetocaloric and electrocaloric materials have been studied intensively in the last few decades, mechanocaloric materials are only very recently receiving a great deal of attention. The mechanocaloric effect refers to the reversible thermal response of a solid when subjected to an external mechanical field, and encompasses both the elastocaloric effect, corresponding to a uniaxial force, and the barocaloric effect, which corresponds to the response to hydrostatic pressure. Here, the state of the art in giant mechanocaloric effects is reviewed and a critical analysis of the thermodynamic quantities that characterize the major families of barocaloric and elastocaloric materials is provided. Finally perspectives for further development in this area are given.