Simple and low-cost footstep energy-recover barocaloric heating and cooling device

Abstract

In this work, we design, build, and test one of the very first barocaloric devices. The here presented device can recover the energy generated by an individual’s footstep and transform it into barocaloric heating and/or cooling. Accordingly, we present an innovative device that can provide eco-friendly and gas-free heating/cooling. Moreover, we test the device by measuring a new barocaloric organic polymer that exhibits a large adiabatic temperature change of ~2.9 K under the application of 380 bar. These results pave the way towards novel and more advanced barocaloric technologies and provide a simple and low-cost device to explore new barocaloric materials.