Colossal barocaloric effects near room temperature in plastic crystals of neopentylglycol

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of colossal barocaloric effects in neopentylglycol plastic crystals near room temperature, offering a promising environmentally friendly cooling alternative with performance comparable to traditional hydrofluorocarbons.

Contribution

It introduces a new class of plastic crystal materials exhibiting unprecedented pressure-driven thermal changes suitable for cooling applications.

Findings

Large pressure-driven thermal changes near room temperature

Comparable to commercial hydrofluorocarbon cooling effects

Potential for environmentally friendly refrigeration

Abstract

There is currently great interest in replacing the harmful volatile hydrofluorocarbon fluids used in refrigeration and air-conditioning with solid materials that display magnetocaloric, electrocaloric or mechanocaloric effects. However, the field-driven thermal changes in all of these caloric materials fall short with respect to their fluid counterparts. Here we show that plastic crystals of neopentylglycol (CH3)2C(CH2OH)2 display unprecedentedly large pressure-driven thermal changes near room temperature due to molecular reconfiguration, and that these changes are comparable with those exploited commercially in hydrofluorocarbons. Our discovery of colossal barocaloric effects in a plastic crystal should bring barocaloric materials to the forefront of research and development in order to achieve safe environmentally friendly cooling without compromising performance.