There may be a new contender in the air-cooling industry that could help chill anything from food to cars to electronics, all without using refrigerant liquids and gases or even moving parts.
A new report out of the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and shared by CleanTechnica, states that researchers have found a new understanding of certain atomic-scale heat motion processes.
This knowledge offers promise in enhancing materials toward the goal of achieving environmentally friendly solid-state cooling technologies. Once developed, these could provide quiet, compact, and lightweight devices with precise temperature controls.
The researchers found that a nickel-cobalt-manganese-indium magnetic shape-memory alloy can be deformed and reformed by forcing it through a phase transition. Using heat or by applying a magnetic field, the material is subjected to both magnetic and structural changes, during which it absorbs and releases heat.
The magnetocaloric effect, as it's called, would be leveraged to offer refrigeration in a solid-state cooling application without the need for harmful, planet-warming gases.
Magnons, or spin waves, and phonons, also called vibrations, join together in a dance across small areas of disordered atoms. That has important implications for the material's thermal properties.
"Neutron scattering shows that the cooling capacity of the magnetic shape-memory alloy is tripled by the heat contained within these local magnon-phonon hybrid modes that form because of the disorder in the system," as Michael Manley, senior researcher ORNL, shared in the press release.
The researchers studied the alloy while it's in a phase of disordered conditions, preventing the material from reaching a stable, ordered state, essentially becoming "frustrated."
"As the material approaches this frustrated state, the amount of heat being stored increases," Manley continued. "Changing the magnetic field triggers another phase transition in which this heat is released."
Cooling systems have come a long way since the old days when they were loaded with planet-warming CFCs that undergo their own phase transitions from liquid to gas. New models have shifted towards less damaging HFCs and HCFCs, which break down more easily in the atmosphere, but they're still imperfect replacements.
Air conditioners also use a lot of electricity, accounting for approximately 6% of what's generated in the U.S. and leading to around 129 million tons of carbon gas added to the atmosphere, according to the Department of Energy.
Heat pumps have been gaining momentum as a cost-efficient and environmentally friendly cooling alternative for homes and businesses. Plus, there are tax incentives for making the switch provided by the Inflation Reduction Act.
This new solid-state cooling innovation could be applied to myriad situations, including cooling down data centers. These use 10-50 times as much energy as traditional office buildings and have been projected to consume 9% of electricity generated in the U.S. by 2030.
Manipulating a material's thermal properties through magnetism could be the breakthrough science hack we need to cool things down in the face of soaring global temperatures.
As Manley explained, "This finding reveals a path to make better materials for solid-state cooling applications for societal needs."
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