Tipping, PJ and Gleeson, HF orcid.org/0000-0002-7494-2100 (2022) Ferroelectric Smectic Liquid Crystals as Electrocaloric Materials. Crystals, 12 (6). 809. ISSN 2073-4352
Abstract
The 1980s saw the development of ferroelectric chiral smectic C (SmC*) liquid crystals (FLCs) with a clear focus on their application in fast electro-optic devices. However, as the only known fluid ferroelectric materials, they also have potential in other applications, one of which is in heat-exchange devices based on the electrocaloric effect. In particular, ferroelectric liquid crystals can be both the electrocaloric material and the heat exchanging fluid in an electrocaloric device, significantly simplifying some of the design constraints associated with solid dielectrics. In this paper, we consider the electrocaloric potential of three SmC* ferroelectric liquid crystal systems, two of which are pure materials that exhibit ferroelectric, antiferroelectric, and intermediate phases and one that was developed as a room-temperature SmC* material for electro-optic applications. We report the field-induced temperature changes of these selected materials, measured indirectly using the Maxwell method. The maximum induced temperature change determined, 0.37 K, is currently record-breaking for an FLC and is sufficiently large to make these materials interesting candidates for the development for electrocaloric applications. Using the electrocaloric temperature change normalised as a function of electric field strength, as a function of merit, the performances of FLCs are compared with ferroelectric ceramics and polymers.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
Keywords: | ferroelectric materials; smectic liquid crystals; electrocaloric effect |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Physics and Astronomy (Leeds) > Soft Matter Physics (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number Merck KGaA Carsten Fritzsch Not Known |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 10 Jun 2022 10:58 |
Last Modified: | 25 Jun 2023 23:00 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | MDPI |
Identification Number: | 10.3390/cryst12060809 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:187766 |