A solid-state refrigerator based on the electrocaloric effect

The electrocaloric effect offers an attractive alternative to the Peltier effect for compact high-efficiency solid-state refrigeration. We report an implementation and experimental characterization of a continuous electrocaloric refrigeration cycle where we use switchable liquid-based thermal interfaces to achieve reliable high-contrast thermal switching between an electrocaloric material and a heat source/sink. The experimentally measured temporal temperature profiles of a cooling load agree well with transient heat transfer modeling results. Our work experimentally validates the feasibility of electrocaloric refrigeration and motivates further applied research on device development. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4729038]