Cooling without gases: Molecular design brings solid-state cooling closer to reality

Some solid materials can cool or heat when pressure is applied or released. This behavior enables cooling and heating technologies that do not rely on climate-damaging refrigerant gases. In practice, however, a major obstacle remains: many materials behave differently when heating and cooling, making their response difficult to use reliably in real devices. In a study published in the journal Communications Materials, researchers study a solid material known for its exceptionally large cooling/heating response (thermal response) under pressure and ask a simple question: Can this response be made more reliable? They show that a very small change in composition leads to a marked improvement and use neutron experiments to explain why this improvement occurs.