Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 11, 2025

Experimental Methods for Investigation of Shape Memory Based Elastocaloric Cooling Processes and Model Validation
Published on: May 2, 2016
High cooling performance in a double-loop electrocaloric heat pump
Junning Li1, Alvar Torelló1, Veronika Kovacova1
1Materials Research and Technology Department, Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, Belvaux L-4422, Luxembourg.
None:
Cooling through solid-state electrocaloric materials is an attractive replacement for vapor compression. Despite recent efforts, devices that are potentially commercially competitive have not been developed. We present an electrocaloric cooler with a maximum temperature span of 20.9 kelvin and a maximum cooling power of 4.2 watts under the moderate applied electric field of 10 volts per micrometer without any observed breakdown. Moreover, the maximum coefficient of performance, even taking into account energy expended on fluid pumping, reaches 64% of Carnot's efficiency as long as energy is properly recovered. We believe that this demonstration shows electrocaloric cooling to be a very promising alternative to vapor compression cooling.
Related Concept Videos
Refrigerators and Heat Pumps
A household refrigerator removes heat from...
The Carnot Cycle
What could be the theoretical limit to the efficiency of a heat engine? The...
Mechanisms of Heat Transfer II
Heat Flow and Specific Heat
The Carnot Cycle and the Second Law of Thermodynamics
Since the individual steps in a Carnot cycle can be reversed, the entire cycle is, thus, reversible. If a Carnot cycle is reversed, it becomes a Carnot refrigerator. It extracts heat Qc from a cold reservoir at...
Heating and Cooling Curves
For instance, the addition of heat raises the temperature of a solid; the amount of heat absorbed depends on the heat capacity of the solid (q = mcsolidΔT). According to thermochemistry, the relation between the amount of heat absorbed or released by a substance, q, and its...

