Design of polar boundaries enhancing negative electrocaloric performance by antiferroelectric phase-field simulations

Electrocaloric refrigeration, an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional methods, has gained significant attention. Antiferroelectric (AFE) materials, unlike ferroelectric materials, exhibit a negative electrocaloric effect (ECE), where an applied electric field decreases the material's temperature. This study utilizes antiferroelectric phase-field simulations to design polar boundaries that enhance the negative ECE performance in PbZrO3-based materials. Simulations reveal that increasing polar boundary density broadens the temperature range of the negative ECE, with antiferroelectric nanodomains achieving a peak adiabatic temperature change of -13.05 K at 84 kV/cm and a wide temperature range of about 75 K at 42 kV/cm. These findings suggest promising potential for AFE materials in next-generation refrigeration devices.

Ke Xu, Xiaoming Shi, Cancan Shao, Shouzhe Dong, Houbing Huang