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| (NPG) crystals Plastic crystals identified solid, safe our refrigerants. ... Researchers |
Researchers at Cambridge University and Universitat Polytechnica de Catalunya have reported that plastic neopentilglike (NPG) crystals can create a real alternative to today's gas coolant. When pressed, these crystals show "very large thermal changes", the authors point out.
Cold under pressure
Dr Cambridge University Says Javier Moya, "Refrigerators and air conditioners based on HFCs and HCS [hydrofluorocarbons and hydrocarbons] are also relatively inefficient."
"This is important because refrigeration and air conditioning currently consumes one fifth of the energy produced in the world, and the demand for cooling is only increasing."
HFC and HC are currently used in the vast majority of refrigerators and air conditioners. They are toxic and flammable, and become a powerful greenhouse gas after leakage. HCS also eliminated the ozone layer. They are not good at being cooling, but they are the best we are currently available on a commercial scale.
Moya, with Professor Josep Lulis Tamerit of Universitit Politec de Catalunya, is one of the researchers working on finding replacement. They report that NPG's plastic crystals may fit into that role. The material is widely available and is inexpensive, and it is used in paint, polyester, lubricants and various other chemical products. It also works on normal room temperature and conditions.
Traditional cooling technologies use fluid to 'move' around the heat. To do this, the liquid is then converted into a gas and later brought back into a liquid form in the cycle. It absorbs energy because it spreads (like water when it boils) and then releases it because it compresses it. Most cooling devices today work by using liquids like HFCs and HCs because they consume a lot of energy while expanding.
The solid alternative proposed by the team is cooled through the change in its microscopic structure - through a magnetic field, an electric field or mechanical force. This is a well documented response, but fluid coolant has made them better in efficiency, so they are not widely used. NPG plastic crystals, however, are equivalent to these liquid substances.
It separates it from the rest which is the size of its molecules. They are almost spherical and only establish weak contacts with each other. It makes it a bit like behavior, but not at all, in the form of a liquid. The word "plastic" in their name implies that they can be considered not as plastic but malignant. Because the molecules can be transferred much more independently than the previous solid coolant, the team writes "compressing NPG" relates to "pressure and temperature related [effect and temperature]," the team writes.
"Here we show that due to molecular restructuring, plastic crystals of neopentilglicloss display a very high pressure-driven thermal transition near the room temperature," the team writes, "these changes can not be seen in any type of caloric content Better, and these changes are comparable to those with commercially exploited people in hydrofluorocarbon. "
"Our findings of [...] should be brought forward, in the case of research and development, to obtain environmentally friendly cooling without compromising on the performance, the baroque material should be brought," their conclusion is.
Moya is now working with the Cambridge University's commercialization arm Cambridge Enterprise to bring this technology into the market.
The paper "Colosol Beryloric effect near room temperature in plastic crystal of neocentilgliacolole" has been published in Journal Nature Communications.