APL Films minces d’échecs Près de la double efficacité de réfrigération. Les matériaux évolutifs pourraient transformer les technologies de refroidissement et de récolte d’énergie.
Les scientifiques du Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) à Laurel, Maryland, ont créé un nouveau système de réfrigération thermoélectrique à l’état solide qui est simple à fabriquer et deux fois plus efficace que les appareils construits avec des matériaux thermoélectriques en vrac standard. Comme le besoin global de technologies de refroidissement compactes, fiables et économes en énergie continue d’augmenter, ce développement offre une alternative prometteuse à la réfrigération conventionnelle basée sur le compresseur.
Dans une étude publiée dans “This real-world demonstration of refrigeration using new thermoelectric materials showcases the capabilities of nano-engineered CHESS thin films,” said Rama Venkatasubramanian, principal investigator of the joint project and chief technologist for thermoelectrics at APL. “It marks a significant leap in cooling technology and sets the stage for translating advances in thermoelectric materials into practical, large-scale, energy-efficient refrigeration applications.” The demand for smaller, more efficient cooling technologies is being driven by population growth, urban expansion, and the growing dependence on advanced electronics and large-scale data systems. Although traditional cooling methods are effective, they tend to be bulky, consume significant amounts of energy, and rely on chemical refrigerants that can damage the environment. Thermoelectric refrigeration offers a promising alternative. This approach transfers heat using electrons within specialized semiconductor materials, eliminating the need for moving parts or chemical coolants. As a result, these systems can be made compact, quiet, reliable, and environmentally sustainable. While bulk thermoelectric materials are already used in small products such as mini-refrigerators, their low efficiency, limited heat-transfer capacity, and poor compatibility with semiconductor chip manufacturing have restricted their adoption in larger, high-performance applications. Dans l’étude, les chercheurs ont comparé les modules de réfrigération utilisant des matériaux thermoélectriques en vrac traditionnels avec ceux utilisant des matériaux de film mince d’échecs dans des tests de réfrigération standardisés, mesurer et la comparaison de l’énergie électrique nécessaire pour atteindre divers niveaux de refroidissement dans les mêmes systèmes de test de réfrigérateur commercial. L’équipe de la solution Life de Samsung Research, dirigée par le vice-président exécutif Joonhyun Lee, a collaboré avec APL pour valider les résultats grâce à une modélisation thermique détaillée, en quantifiant les charges thermiques et les paramètres de résistance thermique pour assurer une évaluation précise des performances dans des conditions réelles. Les résultats étaient frappants: en utilisant des matériaux d’échecs, l’équipe APL a obtenu une amélioration de près de 100% de l’efficacité par rapport aux matériaux thermoélectriques traditionnels à température ambiante (environ 80 degrés[{ » attribute= » » tabindex= »0″ role= »link »>FahrenheitA New Benchmark for Solid-State Cooling
Built to Scale
Beyond improving efficiency, the CHESS thin-film technology uses remarkably less material — just 0.003 cubic centimeters, or about the size of a grain of sand, per refrigeration unit. This reduction in material means APL’s thermoelectric materials could be mass-produced using semiconductor chip production tools, driving cost efficiency and enabling widespread market adoption.
“This thin-film technology has the potential to grow from powering small-scale refrigeration systems to supporting large building HVAC applications, similar to the way that lithium-ion batteries have been scaled to power devices as small as mobile phones and as large as electric vehicles,” Venkatasubramanian said.
Additionally, the CHESS materials were created using a well-established process commonly used to manufacture high-efficiency solar cells that power satellites and commercial LED lights.
“We used metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) to produce the CHESS materials, a method well known for its scalability, cost-effectiveness, and ability to support large-volume manufacturing,” said Jon Pierce, a senior research engineer who leads the MOCVD growth capability at APL. “MOCVD is already widely used commercially, making it ideal for scaling up CHESS thin-film thermoelectric materials production.”
Future applications and energy harvesting
These materials and devices continue to show promise for a broad range of energy harvesting and electronics applications, in addition to the recent advances in refrigeration. APL plans to continue to partner with organizations to refine the CHESS thermoelectric materials with a focus on boosting efficiency to approach that of conventional mechanical systems. Future efforts include demonstrating larger-scale refrigeration systems, including freezers, and integrating artificial intelligence-driven methods to optimize energy efficiency in compartmentalized or distributed cooling in refrigeration and HVAC equipment.
“Beyond refrigeration, CHESS materials are also able to convert temperature differences, like body heat, into usable power,” said Jeff Maranchi, Exploration Program Area manager in APL’s Research and Exploratory Development Mission Area. “In addition to advancing next-generation tactile systems, prosthetics and human-machine interfaces, this opens the door to scalable energy-harvesting technologies for applications ranging from computers to spacecraft — capabilities that weren’t feasible with older bulkier thermoelectric devices.”
“The success of this collaborative effort demonstrates that high-efficiency solid-state refrigeration is not only scientifically viable but manufacturable at scale,” said Susan Ehrlich, an APL technology commercialization manager. “We’re looking forward to continued research and technology transfer opportunities with companies as we work toward translating these innovations into practical, real-world applications.”
Reference: “Nano-engineered thin-film thermoelectric materials enable practical solid-state refrigeration” by Jake Ballard, Matthew Hubbard, Sung-Jin Jung, Vanessa Rojas, Richard Ung, Junwoo Suh, MinSoo Kim, Joonhyun Lee, Jonathan M. Pierce and Rama Venkatasubramanian, 21 May 2025, Nature Communications.
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-59698-y
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