The Penn State Research Foundation

Baojin Chu

Qiming Zhang

Jiping Cheng

Qing Wang

L Eric Cross

Lee Gorny

Wenyi Zhu

Nan Li

John Y Fu

Sheng-Guo Lu

Yingying Lu

Bret P Neese

Xinyu Li

Xin Zhou

Bret Neese

Cooling devices (i.e., refrigerators or heat pumps) based on polymers which exhibit a temperature change upon application or removal of an electrical field or voltage, (e.g., fluoropolymers or crosslinked fluoropolymers that exhibit electrocaloric effect).

Polymer-based electrocaloric cooling devices

An example flexoelectric-piezoelectric apparatus provides an electrical response to an applied force, and/or an actuation in response to an applied electric field, that originates from the flexoelectric properties of a component. For example, shaped forms within the apparatus may be configured to yield a stress gradient on application of the force, and the stress gradient induces the flexoelectric signal. A flexoelectric-piezoelectric apparatus can be substituted for a conventional piezoelectric apparatus, but does not require the use of a piezoelectric material. Instead, the response of the apparatus is due to the generation of stress gradients and/or field gradients.

Flexoelectric&#x2014;piezoelectric composite based on flexoelectric charge separation

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Rapid City, SD, United States of America

Baojin Chu