Related papers: Investigating nucleation-driven phase transitions …
The discovery of colossal barocaloric effects in neopentyl glycol (NPG) makes plastic crystals promising candidates for solid-state refrigerants with lower environmental impact than vapour compression fluids. Optimising operational…
Barocalorics (BCs) are emerging as promising alternatives to vapour-phase refrigerants, which are problematic as they exacerbate climate change when they inevitably leak into the atmosphere. However, the commercialisation of BC refrigerants…
Solid-state refrigeration technology based on caloric effects are promising to replace the currently used vapor compression cycles. However, their application is restricted due to limited performances of caloric materials. Here, we have…
There is currently great interest in replacing the harmful volatile hydrofluorocarbon fluids used in refrigeration and air-conditioning with solid materials that display magnetocaloric, electrocaloric or mechanocaloric effects. However, the…
Solid-state refrigeration based on caloric effects is an energetically efficient and environmentally friendly technology, which is deemed as a potential alternative to the conventional vapor-compression technology. One of the greatest…
In recent years, orientationally disordered crystals, or plastic crystals, have transformed the field of solid-state cooling due to the significant latent heat and entropy changes associated with their temperature induced molecular…
Depending on the volume fraction and interparticle interactions, colloidal suspensions can form different phases, ranging from fluids, crystals, and glasses to gels. For soft microgels that are made from thermoresponsive polymers, the…
The photothermal heterodyne imaging technique enabled studies of individual weakly absorbing nano-objects in various environments. It uses a photo-induced change in the refractive index of the environment. Taking advantage of the dramatic…
Phase change material based thermal energy storage has many current and potential applications in the heating and cooling of buildings, battery and electronics thermal management, thermal textiles, and dry cooling of power plants. However,…
Current vapor-compression technology is based on the gas-liquid transition of hazardous gas. The alternative cooling technology focuses on the solid caloric material. A new liquid barocaloric material, i.e. the liquid crystal, is proved to…
We present the results of a detailed investigation of the low-temperature properties of the vortex system in strongly anisotropic layered superconductors with a random array of columnar pinning centers. Our method involves numerical…
Optical refrigeration of solids with anti-Stokes fluorescence has been widely explored as a vibration-free cryogenic cooling technology. A minimum temperature of 87 K has been demonstrated with rare-earth ion doped crystals using optical…
We study the melting transition of the low-temperature vortex solid in strongly anisotropic layered superconductors with a concentration of random columnar pinning centers small enough so that the areal density of the pins is much less than…
Nucleation and growth (N&G) - the emergence of a new phase within an initially homogeneous one - is one of the most important physical phenomena by which gas-liquid, liquid-liquid and solid-liquid phase separation takes place. Accordingly,…
The phase behavior of poly (N-isopropylacrylamide) nanoparticles dispersed in aqueous medium is investigated as a function of temperature using static and dynamic light scattering techniques. The diameter, d of the particles, as determined…
Microgels are often discussed as well-suited model system for soft colloids. In contrast to rigid spheres, the microgel volume and, coupled to this, the volume fraction in dispersion can be manipulated by external stimuli. This behavior is…
We combine small angle scattering experiments and simulations to investigate the internal structure and interactions of composite Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)-Poly(ethylene glycol) (PNIPAM-PEG) microgels. At low temperatures the…
The process of homogeneous crystal nucleation has been considered in a model liquid, where the interparticle interaction is described by a short-range spherical oscillatory potential. Mechanisms of initiating structural ordering in the…
We describe an electrospray technique for in situ preparation, for differential scanning calorimetry study, of samples of molecular liquids quenched into the glassy state on extremely short time scales (hyperquenched). We study the case of…
Phase transitions and their associated crossovers are imprinted in the behavior of fluctuations. Motivated by recent experiments on ultracold atoms in optical lattices, we compute the thermodynamic density fluctuations $\delta N^2$ of the…