High-energy x-ray diffraction study on phase transition asymmetry of plastic crystal neopentylglycol

As a prototype material of colossal barocaloric effects, neopentylglycol is investigated by combining high-precision differential scanning calorimetric measurement and high-energy x-ray diffraction measurement. The diffraction data at constant temperatures indicate a first-order phase transition with thermal hysteresis as well as the phase transition asymmetry,specifically, the phase transition is completed faster at cooling than at heating. The analysis of resulting pair distribution function confirms the intermolecular disorder in the high-temperature phase. The phase transition asymmetry is quantitatively characterized by time-resolved x-ray diffraction, which is in agreement with the thermal measurement. Also, such an asymmetry is observed to be suppressed at high pressures.

High electrocaloric effect in barium titanate-sodium niobate ceramics with core-shell grain assembly

Electrocaloric effect(ECE)is promising in realizing solid-state cooling as an alternative to the conventional refrigeration with environmentally harmful coolant and low efficiency.High ECE in lead-free ferroelectric ceramics is highly desirable for the EC cooling.In this work,different from the researches that tune the ECE by conventional compositional design or external stress engineering,we fabricated the(1-x)BaTiO_(3)-xNaNbO_(3)(BTO-xNN)lead-free ceramics with a core-shell grain structure arising from the inhomogeneous stoichiometry of element distribution,leading to the internal compressing stress in the grains.It is interesting that the phase transition behavior,including the phase transition temperature and the diffusion property,is regulated by the core-shell grain structure induced internal stress,which can be capitalized on for the favorable ECE.Cooperated with 0.02 NN,a high ECE,e.g.adiabatic temperature change(ΔT)of 3.6 K and isothermal entropy change(ΔS)of 4.5 J kg^(-1) K^(-1),is attained in the BTO ceramic.As the internal stress further increases with more NN,the BTO-0.06NN exhibits an extremely stable ECE with a variety rate below ±4% in a wide temperature range from 300 K to 360 K.This work provides a novel approach to explore pronounced ECE in lead-free ferroelectrics for eco-friendly refrigeration.