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solid refrigerant, colossal barocaloric effect
Collaborative Research Results of NSRRC User Yuichi Shimakawa, NSRRC researchers Hwo-Shuenn Sheu and Yu-Chun Chuang Highlighted as a Cover of Advanced Functional Materials
2021/07/16
Collaborative research results of NSRRC user Yuichi Shimakawa, NSRRC researchers Hwo-Shuenn Sheu and Yu-Chun Chuang Highlighted as a cover of .Advanced Functional Materials.
Each year more than a quarter of the global energy is consumed in refrigeration. While vapor-compression refrigerants are widely used in the current refrigeration technology, they cause serious pollution to the environment and even lead to ozone depletion. The research team of the NSRRC User Prof. Yuichi Shimakawa (Institute for Chemical Research, Kyoto University, Japan) explores the novel solid thermomaterials NdCu3Fe4O12 and finds that the adiabatic temperature change by applying 5.1 kbar pressure is estimated to reach 13.7 K, which means efficient refrigeration can be realized through a colossal barocaloric effect with this material. The latest research results were published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials and highlighted in the inside front cover. The research results show promising potentials for industrial application and were also reported in two Japanese news platforms, The Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun and The Science News on March 25th and April 16th respectively.
 
NdCu3Fe4O12 is an A-site-ordered quadruple perovskite-structure oxide. It is found to release significant latent heat at the intersite-charge-transfer transition temperature near room temperature. The transition is first-order and accompanied by an unusual magnetic ordering and a large negative-thermal-expansion-like volume change, and thus, it causes a large entropy change. It is regarded as an environmental-friendly alternative refrigerant. Prof. Yuichi Shimakawa conducted the research in collaboration with researchers from Magnetic Powder Metallurgy Research Center (Japan), High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (Japan), Center for Condensed Matter Sciences of National Taiwan University, as well as Dr. Hwo-Shuenn Sheu and Dr. Yu-Chun Chuang from NSRRC. The crystal structure of the sample was analyzed with Synchrotron X-ray Diffraction (SXRD) data collected at the TPS 09A beamline of the NSRRC.