Electrocaloric effects in multilayer capacitors for cooling applications

For more than a century, humankind has achieved refrigeration by exploiting volatile gases that harm the environment when released to the atmosphere. More recently, the observation of electrocaloric effects in commercial multilayer capacitors has inspired the possibility of environmentally friendly cooling. In this article, we describe electrocaloric effects in multilayer capacitors for cooling applications, compare the electrocaloric performance of existing multilayer capacitors, and discuss the improvements required for practical cooling devices.