A multicaloric material as a link between electrocaloric and magnetocaloric refrigeration

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 6; no. 1; p. 26629
• Main Authors: Ursic, Hana, Bobnar, Vid, Malic, Barbara, Filipic, Cene, Vrabelj, Marko, Drnovsek, Silvo, Jo, Younghun, Wencka, Magdalena, Kutnjak, Zdravko
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 25-05-2016; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 639/301/119/2793; 639/301/119/996; Cooling; Electric fields; Humanities and Social Sciences; Magnetic fields; multidisciplinary; Refrigeration; Science; Temperature; Temperature effects
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/srep26629

The existence and feasibility of the multicaloric, polycrystalline material 0.8Pb(Fe
1/2
Nb
1/2
)O
3
-0.2Pb(Mg
1/2
W
1/2
)O
3
, exhibiting magnetocaloric and electrocaloric properties, are demonstrated. Both the electrocaloric and magnetocaloric effects are observed over a broad temperature range below room temperature. The maximum magnetocaloric temperature change of ~0.26 K is obtained with a magnetic-field amplitude of 70 kOe at a temperature of 5 K, while the maximum electrocaloric temperature change of ~0.25 K is obtained with an electric-field amplitude of 60 kV/cm at a temperature of 180 K. The material allows a multicaloric cooling mode or a separate caloric-modes operation depending on the origin of the external field and the temperature at which the field is applied.