Electrocaloric cooling over high device temperature span

A SUMMARY Electrocaloric cooling demonstrates direct electricity utilization and high energy efficiency, and is often proposed as an environmentally benign, solid-state alternative to the conventional vapor compression cooling technology. As a result, the fabrication of effective electrocaloric materials and engineering of electrocaloric cooling devices have attracted increasing attention in the cooling community. However, the limited material adiabatic temperature change under safe operation field poses a major challenge to practical electrocaloric cooling device development, since real-world applications usually require device temperature span over 20 K. This perspective presents recent efforts devoted to design electrocaloric cooling devices based on active heat regeneration and cascading approaches; both strategies have achieved significant device temperature lift similar to 10 K with adiabatic temperature change of 2-3 K. The strategies discussed in this work are broadly applicable to the design of efficient and compact cooling systems.

Automated summary

Electrocaloric cooling technology has gained attention as an environmentally friendly and efficient alternative in the cooling community. However, the limited adiabatic temperature change of materials poses a challenge. Recent efforts have focused on designing electrocaloric cooling devices based on active heat regeneration and cascading approaches, showing promising results.