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Barocaloric Material with High Thermal Conductivity for Room-Temperature Refrigeration

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Abstract

Barocaloric refrigeration technology, one of the caloric-effect refrigeration technologies, is drawing more and more attention. Neopentyl glycol (NPG) was reported to have a giant barocaloric effect, making it a potential barocaloric material. However, the high solid-solid (S-S) phase transition temperature and low thermal conductivity hinder the application of NPG in barocaloric refrigeration. This work lowers the S-S phase transition temperature and improves the thermal conductivity of the NPG-based barocaloric material. An NPG/TMP (TMP: Trimethylolpropane) binary system with an S-S phase transition temperature of 283.15 K is prepared, in which the mass ratio of TMP is 20%. Graphene is then added to the binary system to enhance thermal conductivity, and the optimal mass ratio of graphene was determined to be 5%. The thermal conductivity of this composite is 0.4 W/(m·K), increased by 110% compared to the binary system. To predict the effect of enhanced thermal conductivity on the cold-extraction process of the barocaloric refrigeration cycle, a numerical model is developed. The results show that the cold-extraction time of the barocaloric refrigeration cycle utilizing the composite with 5% graphene as the refrigerant is shortened by 50% compared with that using the binary system.

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Abbreviations

g :

Gravity acceleration/m·s−2

ΔH :

Latent heat/kJ·kg−1

p :

Pressure/Pa

T :

Temperature/K

T on :

Extrapolated starting temperature/K

T off :

Extrapolated ending temperature/K

λ :

Thermal conductivity/W·(m·K)−1

μ :

Dynamic viscosity/Pa·s

ρ :

Density/kg·m−3

BCE:

Barocaloric effect

DSC:

Differential scanning calorimeter

FT-IR:

Fourier transform infrared spectrometer

GWP:

Global warming potential

HTF:

Heat transfer fluent

NPG:

Neopentyl glycol

PCM:

Phase change material

SEM:

Scanning electronic microscope

S-S:

Solid to solid

TMP:

Trimethylolpropane

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Acknowledgments

The work was supported by the Basic Research Program of Frontier Leading Technologies in Jiangsu Province (BK20202008).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Energy & Environment, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210096, China

    Liutao Zhu, Zhaofeng Dai, Yuanzhi Gao, Dongxu Wu, Changling Wang, Dongliang Zhao & Xiaosong Zhang

  2. School of Mechanical Engineering, Shijiazhuang Tiedao University, Shijiazhuang, 050043, China

    Xiaohui She

  3. Birmingham Centre for Energy Storage, School of Chemical Engineering, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK

    Yulong Ding

  4. Engineering Research Center of Building Equipment, Energy, and Environment, Ministry of Education, Nanjing, 210096, China

    Xiaosong Zhang

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  1. Liutao Zhu
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Correspondence to Xiaosong Zhang.

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DING Yulong is an editorial board member for Journal of Thermal Science and was not involved in the editorial review or the decision to publish this article. All authors declare that there are no competing interests.

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Zhu, L., Dai, Z., Gao, Y. et al. Barocaloric Material with High Thermal Conductivity for Room-Temperature Refrigeration. J. Therm. Sci. 32, 2115–2125 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11630-023-1867-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11630-023-1867-y

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