Flexible Electrocaloric Polymer Stack Driven by One AA Battery for Highly Efficient Personalized Thermoregulation

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Thermodynamics
• Wearable Technology

Background:

• The electrocaloric (EC) effect offers potential for personalized thermoregulation due to its low energy consumption and active thermal control.
• Current EC polymer applications are hindered by high driving voltage requirements, limiting practical use in wearable devices.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel multilayer EC polymer stack capable of operating at a safe driving voltage for personalized thermoregulation.
• To demonstrate the feasibility of EC polymer stacks for practical, low-power wearable thermal management systems.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of a multilayer EC polymer stack with individual layer thicknesses of 1 μm.
• Experimental testing of the EC polymer stack's adiabatic temperature change (ΔT) under safe driving voltages.
• Demonstration of powering EC polymer stacks using a standard AA battery for wearable application.

Main Results:

• An observable adiabatic temperature change (ΔT) was achieved in the multilayer EC polymer stack under a safe driving voltage.
• Two EC polymer stacks were successfully powered by a single AA battery to demonstrate practical application on human skin.
• Theoretical calculations indicate that 625 stacks could cover the human trunk, achieving a ΔT of 4 K, powered by one AA battery.

Conclusions:

• The developed multilayer EC polymer stack effectively reduces the driving voltage requirement for electrocaloric effect applications.
• This technology presents a viable solution for compact, wearable, and energy-efficient personalized thermoregulation systems.
• The EC polymer stack technology shows promise in bridging the gap between the electrocaloric effect and practical thermoregulatory devices.