Compressor-Free Refrigerator On the Way

Iddo Genuth writes "Scientists from Penn State University are designing the future of refrigerators and other cooling devices through magnetic field refrigeration. The investigation pertaining to electrically induced heat effects of some ferroelectric polymers might one day replace electrically powered refrigerators and their compressors and coils. The researchers are focusing on ferroelectric polymers that exhibit temperature changes at room temperature under an electrical field. The same technology might also find its way into computers and other devices in the future, making them run cooler without complex cooling mechanisms."

Comments

Dupe

[ShadowRangerRIT]

http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/08/10/2237223 And the first summary had more details.

Re:Dupe

[Egdiroh]

Wow slashdot's amazing, if you are to be believed and this is a dupe to an post made on 08/10/2008, then slashdot can see the future of the internet because the article linked to in this post is dated 09/11/2008. Freaky.

Don't dismiss new articles on previously covered topics out of hand. If you read what the ancient greeks wrote about the sky and stopped there, you would be pretty ignorant about the things we've learned since.

This isn't a dupe. It's a new article about a topic that has previously been discussed, and that's what your comment should say, instead of just calling it out as a dupe. Because by that logic your comment is a dupe because other people have posted other dupe comments for other topics.

Re:Dupe

[ShadowRangerRIT]

I did read the linked article (albeit only skimming). It adds nothing to the original Slashdot story, since it is using the Penn State news item from the original Slashdot story as a source.

Perhaps I shouldn't have called dupe. After all, it was an inferior summary of a month old article. "Cheap knock-off" might be more accurate.

This is news?

[Anonymous Coward]

Vendors like Coleman have been selling solid-state peltier effect portable refrigerators for camping use for years.

Re:This is news?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not news, but not because it's solid state. It's because of the method used: ferroelectric polymers that exhibit temperature changes at room temperature under an electrical field, rather than the peltier effect.
That said, it's still a dupe.

Re:My highly original thought on the subject

[MyLongNickName]

TFA is written very poorly and describes a phenomena involving polymers that is already widely known. There are many examples. Here is one you can try using something far less exotic than the polymers mentioned in the article.

For this example, take a rubber band. Stretch it out. Touch the stretched rubber band to your lips. It will feel warm. Hold it in the stretched position for a few seconds to let it cool down to room temperature. Now let the rubber band relax, and once again touch it to your lips. You should now notice that it will feel cool.

The above process uses exactly the same principles described in TFA. Stretching the rubber band causes reduction of disorder by aligning the polymer chains. It also warms the rubber band because of the work applied. As you hold the rubber band in the stretched state it will cool to room temperature releasing some of the energy needed to heat it. This is equivalent to the step where the electrical field is applied.

Now release the rubber band. The polymer chains now revert back to a disordered state, cooling the rubber. Since the rubber band started in a stretched room temperature state the relaxed rubber band will now be below room temperature. this is equivalent to turning off the electric field as mentioned in the article.

Voila. This is a wonderful new refrigeration system that will replace all existing known cooling systems. NOT.

There are so many issues with practical application of this it is not funny. If these issues didn't exist we would have been using rubber band refrigerators for many decades already.

Also, please note that from a thermodynamics point of view this is essentially how a conventional refrigeration system works (albeit fat far more efficiently).

Re:Magnetic cooling for computers?

[sexconker]

Kraft Singles American cheese.

Unwrap, insert into floppy drive while it's still cool.

Perfect fit.
Impossible to eject.
Your "friend" will notice it when he tries to insert a floppy, or when it melts.
Hilarious.

If only Kraft made 12 cm discs of cheese...