Self-oscillating polymeric refrigerator with high energy efficiency.

Electrocaloric and electrostrictive effects concurrently exist in dielectric materials. Combining these two effects could achieve the lightweight, compact localized thermal management that is promised by electrocaloric refrigeration. Despite a handful of numerical models and schematic presentations, current electrocaloric refrigerators still rely on external accessories to drive the working bodies and hence result in a low device-level cooling power density and coefficient of performance (COP).

Toward Ultrahigh Rate and Cycling Performance of Cathode Materials of Sodium Ion Battery by Introducing a Bicontinuous Porous Structure.

The emerging sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) are one of the most promising candidates expected to complement lithium-ion batteries and diversify the battery market. However, the exploitation of cathode materials with high-rate performance and long-cycle stability for SIBs has remained one of the major challenges. To this end, an efficient approach to enhance rate and cycling performance by introducing an ordered bicontinuous porous structure into cathode materials of SIBs is demonstrated.

Low-k nano-dielectrics facilitate electric-field induced phase transition in high-k ferroelectric polymers for sustainable electrocaloric refrigeration.

Ferroelectric polymer-based electrocaloric effect may lead to sustainable heat pumps and refrigeration owing to the large electrocaloric-induced entropy changes, flexible, lightweight and zero-global warming potential. Herein, low-k nanodiamonds are served as extrinsic dielectric fillers to fabricate polymeric nanocomposites for electrocaloric refrigeration. As low-k nanofillers are naturally polar-inactive, hence they have been widely applied for consolidate electrical stability in dielectrics.

Colossal electrocaloric effect in an interface-augmented ferroelectric polymer.

The electrocaloric effect demands the maximized degree of freedom (DOF) of polar domains and the lowest energy barrier to facilitate the transition of polarization. However, optimization of the DOF and energy barrier-including domain size, crystallinity, multiconformation coexistence, polar correlation, and other factors in bulk ferroelectrics-has reached a limit. We used organic crystal dimethylhexynediol (DMHD) as a three-dimensional sacrificial master to assemble polar conformations at the heterogeneous interface in poly(vinylidene fluoride)-based terpolymer.

Self-regulated underwater phototaxis of a photoresponsive hydrogel-based phototactic vehicle.

Incorporating a negative feedback loop in a synthetic material to enable complex self-regulative behaviours akin to living organisms remains a design challenge. Here we show that a hydrogel-based vehicle can follow the directions of photonic illumination with directional regulation inside a constraint-free, fluidic space. By manipulating the customized photothermal nanoparticles and the microscale pores in the polymeric matrix, we achieved strong chemomechanical deformation of the soft material.

Statistical Mechanical Model of the Giant Electrocaloric Effect in Ferroelectric Polymers.

The development of highly efficient cooling technologies has been identified as a key strategy to address the mitigation of global warming. Especially, electrocaloric materials have emerged as promising candidates for cooling applications, owing to their potential to provide high cooling capacity with low energy consumption. To advance the development of electrocaloric materials with a significant electrocaloric effect (ECE), a thorough understanding of the underlying mechanisms is required.

Fluoropolymer ferroelectrics: Multifunctional platform for polar-structured energy conversion.

Ferroelectric materials are currently some of the most widely applied material systems and are constantly generating improved functions with higher efficiencies. Advancements in poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)-based polymer ferroelectrics provide flexural, coupling-efficient, and multifunctional material platforms for applications that demand portable, lightweight, wearable, and durable features. We highlight the recent advances in fluoropolymer ferroelectrics, their energetic cross-coupling effects, and emerging technologies, including wearable, highly efficient electromechanical actuators and sensors, electrocaloric refrigeration, and dielectric devices.

Ladderphane copolymers for high-temperature capacitive energy storage.

For capacitive energy storage at elevated temperatures, dielectric polymers are required to integrate low electrical conduction with high thermal conductivity. The coexistence of these seemingly contradictory properties remains a persistent challenge for existing polymers. We describe here a class of ladderphane copolymers exhibiting more than one order of magnitude lower electrical conductivity than the existing polymers at high electric fields and elevated temperatures.

Chemical adsorption on 2D dielectric nanosheets for matrix free nanocomposites with ultrahigh electrical energy storage.

Relaxor ferroelectric polymers display great potential in capacitor dielectric applications because of their excellent flexibility, light weight, and high dielectric constant. However, their electrical energy storage capacity is limited by their high conduction losses and low dielectric strength, which primarily originates from the impact-ionization-induced electronmultiplication, low mechanical modulus, and low thermal conductivity of the dielectric polymers. Here a matrix free strategy is developed to effectively suppress electron multiplication effects and to enhance mechanical modulus and thermal conductivity of a dielectric polymer, which involves the chemical adsorption of an electron barrier layer on boron nitride nanosheet surfaces by chemically adsorbing an amino-containing polymer.

Relaxor ferroelectric polymer exhibits ultrahigh electromechanical coupling at low electric field.

Electromechanical (EM) coupling-the conversion of energy between electric and mechanical forms-in ferroelectrics has been used for a broad range of applications. Ferroelectric polymers have weak EM coupling that severely limits their usefulness for applications. We introduced a small amount of fluorinated alkyne (FA) monomers (<2 mol %) in relaxor ferroelectric poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene-chlorofluoroethylene) (PVDF-TrFE-CFE) terpolymer that markedly enhances the polarization change with strong EM coupling while suppressing other polarization changes that do not contribute to it.

High-entropy polymer produces a giant electrocaloric effect at low fields.

More than a decade of research on the electrocaloric (EC) effect has resulted in EC materials and EC multilayer chips that satisfy a minimum EC temperature change of 5 K required for caloric heat pumps. However, these EC temperature changes are generated through the application of high electric fields (close to their dielectric breakdown strengths), which result in rapid degradation and fatigue of EC performance. Here we report a class of EC polymer that exhibits an EC entropy change of 37.

Interface-Strengthened Polymer Nanocomposites with Reduced Dielectric Relaxation Exhibit High Energy Density at Elevated Temperatures Utilizing a Facile Dual Crosslinked Network.

High-temperature ceramic/polymer nanocomposites with large energy density as the reinforcement exhibit great potential for energy storage applications in modern electronic and electrical power systems. Yet, a general drawback is that the increased dielectric constant is usually achieved at the cost of decreased breakdown strength, thus leading to moderate improvement of energy density and even displaying a marked deterioration under high temperatures and high electric fields. Herein, a new strategy is reported to simultaneously improve breakdown strength and discharged energy density by a step-by-step, controllable dual crosslinking process, which constructs a strengthened interface as well as reduces molecular chains relaxation under elevated temperatures.

Artificial phototropism for omnidirectional tracking and harvesting of light.

Many living organisms track light sources and halt their movement when alignment is achieved. This phenomenon, known as phototropism, occurs, for example, when plants self-orient to face the sun throughout the day. Although many artificial smart materials exhibit non-directional, nastic behaviour in response to an external stimulus, no synthetic material can intrinsically detect and accurately track the direction of the stimulus, that is, exhibit tropistic behaviour.

Soft phototactic swimmer based on self-sustained hydrogel oscillator.

Oscillations are widely found in living organisms to generate propulsion-based locomotion often driven by constant ambient conditions, such as phototactic movements. Such environment-powered and environment-directed locomotions may advance fully autonomous remotely steered robots. However, most man-made oscillations require nonconstant energy input and cannot perform environment-dictated movement.

Bioinspired Polymer Nanocomposites Exhibit Giant Energy Density and High Efficiency at High Temperature.

Polymer dielectrics are ubiquitous in advanced electric energy storage systems. However, the relatively low operating temperature significantly menaces their widespread application at high temperatures, such as for hybrid vehicles and aerospace power electronics. Spider silk, a natural nanocomposite comprised of biopolymer chains and crystal protein nanosheets combined by multiple interfacial interactions, exhibits excellent mechanical properties even at elevated temperatures.

Sodium Ion Capacitor Using Pseudocapacitive Layered Ferric Vanadate Nanosheets Cathode.

Sodium ion capacitors (SICs) are designed to deliver both high energy and power densities at low cost. Electric double-layer capacitive cathodes are typically used in these devices, but they lead to very limited capacity. Herein, we apply a pseudocapacitive layered ferric vanadate (Fe-V-O) as cathode to construct non-aqueous SICs with both high energy and power densities.

Bioinspired Hydrogel Interferometer for Adaptive Coloration and Chemical Sensing.

Living organisms ubiquitously display colors that adapt to environmental changes, relying on the soft layer of cells or proteins. Adoption of soft materials into an artificial adaptive color system has promoted the development of material systems for environmental and health monitoring, anti-counterfeiting, and stealth technologies. Here, a hydrogel interferometer based on a single hydrogel thin film covalently bonded to a reflective substrate is reported as a simple and universal adaptive color platform.

A Room Temperature Ultrasensitive Magnetoelectric Susceptometer for Quantitative Tissue Iron Detection.

Iron is a trace mineral that plays a vital role in the human body. However, absorbing and accumulating excessive iron in body organs (iron overload) can damage or even destroy an organ. Even after many decades of research, progress on the development of noninvasive and low-cost tissue iron detection methods is very limited.

Electrocaloric response near room temperature in Zr- and Sn-doped BaTiO3 systems.

The electrocaloric effect (ECE) in (1-x)BaZr0.18 Ti0.82O3-(x)BaSn0.

Tunable broadband isolator based on electro-optically induced linear gratings in a nonlinear photonic crystal.

We theoretically propose a broadband optical isolator based on second-harmonic generation in a one-dimensional quadratic nonlinear photonic crystal (NPC) with an embedded defect. An external electric field along the z axis is applied to modulate the NPC refractive index periodically. Complete optical isolation always could be reached with the help of an external field.

A bidirectional tunable optical diode based on periodically poled LiNbO3.

We propose a bidirectional tunable optical diode based on a periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) with defect. An acoustic wave propagates together with the light beam so that a collinear photon-phonon interaction happens, which affects the nonlinear optical processes in PPLN. The fundamental wave exhibits an optical diode effect, i.

Acousto-optic tunable second harmonic generation in periodically poled LiNbO3.

Acousto-optic (AO) tunable second harmonic generation (SHG) was proposed in periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN). The acoustic wave could either be induced from an external transducer or self-generated in PPLN driving with a cross-field radio frequency field. The reciprocal vector of PPLN compensates the SHG wave-vector mismatch when quasi-phase- matching (QPM) condition is satisfied, while phonons with suitable frequencies may affect it by scattering photons to different polarization state.