The giant electrocaloric effect in EuTiO3 nanowires near room temperature

A phenomenological thermodynamic model is employed to investigate electrocaloric effect in EuTiO3 nanowires, in which the effects of surface tension, gradient, external stress, nanowires radius and so on are considered. We are surprised that the decrease in size and the increase in external tensile stress can significantly enhance the electrocaloric effect of EuTiO3 nanowires under the same applied electric filed. Giant adiabatic temperature changes (Delta T = 15-20 K) are achieved near room temperature by controlling the radius of EuTiO3 nanowires and applied external electric fields, which is much higher than the previous results obtained in many other isomorphic electrocaloric materials. The large electrocaloric effects suggest the potential application for micro-nanodevice in refrigeration. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.