Physics World October 14, 2019
An international team of researchers (China, USA – UT Dallas, Georgia Southern University, industry, Brazil) studied the cooling effects of twist and stretch changes in twisted, coiled and supercoiled fibres of natural rubber, nickel-titanium and polyethylene fishing line. In each material, they observed a surface cooling as high as 16.4 °C, 20.8 °C, and 5.1 °C respectively. Analysis revealed changes in molecular structures associated with the transition from low to high entropy phases. They built a device from a three-ply nickel-titanium wire cable, which cooled a stream of running water by as much as 7.7 °C as it unraveled. They propose that far higher levels of cooling could be reached through additional cycles of twisting and twist release within the cable. Creating commercially viable twist fridges has many challenges including the need find a material that is not degraded by being repeatedly twisted and untwisted…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Twisted fridge. Fridge-freezer: twistocaloric cooling could be coming to a kitchen near you. (Courtesy: iStock/Allevinatis)