Electrocaloric effects across room temperature in multilayer capacitors.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 42092151.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41586-026-10492-w and PMC identifier PMC9532434.
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Abstract
A growing number of cooling devices1-4 exploit large electrocaloric effects associated with a supercritically driven first-order ferroelectric phase transition in multilayer capacitors of PbSc0.5Ta0.5O3 (PST)5. However, these multilayer capacitors only operate above the room-temperature Curie temperature and require an energetically expensive 42-day anneal for high B-site order to maximize latent heat. Here we show that exaggerating valence mismatch through dilution with PbMg0.5W0.5O3 (PMW) maintains high B-site order and latent heat with no anneal, while disrupting dipolar order to reduce the Curie temperature as low as 230 K. Our multilayer capacitors of PST-PMW show supercritical electrocaloric effects of about 3 K across and well below room temperature owing to 17.1 V μm-1 fields we apply >107 times without breakdown. Using our multilayer capacitors in an ideal fluid regenerator and assuming work recovery yields cycle efficiencies of 70-90%. Taken together, our findings imply that multilayer capacitors of PST-PMW should now replace multilayer capacitors of PST in electrocaloric prototypes to permit electrocaloric refrigeration.