Recently, a research team led by Professor Xiong Chuanxi from the School of Materials Science and Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology (WUT), has made new progress in the field of polymer electrocaloric refrigeration. The research findings, entitled “From negligible to giant electrocaloric effect of poly(vinylidene fluoride)”, were published in the international academic journal Nature Communications. The School of Materials Science and Engineering at WUT serves as the first corresponding institution for the paper. Zhang Yibo and Ye Zhiwei, doctoral students at WUT, are the co-first authors. The corresponding authors include Professor Xiong Chuanxi and Professor Yang Quanling from WUT, in collaboration with Professor Wang Qing and Assistant Professor Zhang Shixian from The Pennsylvania State University.

The research team proposed and developed a solid-phase pressure-forming processing strategy that significantly enhances the electrocaloric response of poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF), the most widely used and cost-effective ferroelectric polymer, without introducing any chemical modification. Experimental results demonstrate that PVDF films treated with this solid-phase pressure-forming process exhibit a giant electrocaloric effect of up to 12.8 K, along with a broad effective operating temperature window of 60°C. Through a purely physical processing approach, the study effectively reconstructs the internal crystalline structure of the material, breaking dense crystals and transforming them into a loosely packed, fine β-phase crystalline structure, thereby markedly improving electrocaloric performance. Given the wide availability of PVDF raw materials and its well-established processing foundation, this work provides a new pathway and practical solution for the development of scalable, low-cost polymer-based solid-state refrigeration technologies.

Professor Xiong Chuanxi’s team has long been engaged in the research and application of caloric-effect solid-state refrigeration, flexible electrofunctional materials, and related devices. In recent years, they have achieved a series of innovative achievements and have consistently published in high-impact journals such as Nature Communications (2025, 16, 11180; 2024, 15, 6567; 2022, 13, 9), Advanced Materials (2025, e07704), Advanced Functional Materials (2024, 34, 2313258), and Chemical Engineering Journal (2025, 524, 169794), among others.

Figure1 Electrocaloric effect and β phase distribution in solid-phase pressure formed PVDF

Paper link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-66151-7

Written by: Zhang Yibo, Li Shuang

Rewritten by: Liang Muwei, Li Tiantian

Edited by: Li huihui, Li Tiantian