External stimulation-controllable heat-storage ceramics.

ABSTRACT: Commonly available heat-storage materials cannot usually store the energy for a prolonged period. If a solid material could conserve the accumulated thermal energy, then its heat-storage application potential is considerably widened. Here we report a phase transition material that can conserve the latent heat energy in a wide temperature range, T<530?K and release the heat energy on the application of pressure. This material is stripe-type lambda-trititanium pentoxide, ?-Ti3O5, which exhibits a solid-solid phase transition to beta-trititanium pentoxide, ?-Ti3O5. The pressure for conversion is extremely small, only 600?bar (60?MPa) at ambient temperature, and the accumulated heat energy is surprisingly large (230?kJ?L(-1)). Conversely, the pressure-produced beta-trititanium pentoxide transforms to lambda-trititanium pentoxide by heat, light or electric current. That is, the present system exhibits pressure-and-heat, pressure-and-light and pressure-and-current reversible phase transitions. The material may be useful for heat storage, as well as in sensor and switching memory device applications.

SUBMITTER: Tokoro H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4432584 | biostudies-literature | 2015 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature