Mineral and electricity for refrigeration
2006/04/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria
Researchers at the University of Cambridge have shown that a mineral has a great electrocaloric effect. This can involve interesting applications for this mineral.
Specifically, it is a variant of well-known STP material. The STP is a hard crystalline solid that is piezoelectric, that is, if pressed creates an electric field inside. This serves to convert sound into electricity and vice versa, and therefore is used in some microphones and technologies based on ultrasound.
Now they have tested the material STP Perovskita and have seen that it is electrocaloric. This means that it cools with the installation of an electric field. The STP also has this characteristic, but much less than the rest. In fact, with 25 volts, it cools at 12ºC, while the best known electrocaloric material so far only cools at 2,5 °C with 750 volts.
This feature allows its application in chips and electric circuits, but for it needs to improve. The aim of the researchers is to achieve this effect at an ambient temperature of 220 °C.
