High-Performance Elastocaloric Materials via Novel Design and Advanced Fabrication

Elastocaloric refrigeration, which employs the large latent heat associated with stress-induced martensitic transformation, has been considered as one of the most promising non-vapor-compression cooling technologies. Development of high-performance elastocaloric materials is central for the implementation of elastocaloric refrigeration. After a short review of the elastocaloric research field, this talk will introduce our recent endeavour on developing high-performance elastocaloric materials via novel design and advanced fabrication. The concept “the larger the unit cell volume change across phase transition, the larger the transition entropy change” was used to design a novel alloy with a colossal elastocaloric effect. The “high-entropy alloy” concept was employed to design elastocaloric alloys with a wide operating temperature window. Advanced fabrication techniques, including directional solidification and additive manufacturing, were applied for microstructure control to increase the magnitude of elastocaloric effect and enhance its long-term cyclic stability. Perspectives on future directions for advanced elastocaloric materials development will be given.