Welcome to COOL INNOV
The outstanding research at the Functional Materials group of TU Darmstadt for the substitution of critical raw materials and materials for energy technologies has been recognized by honoring Prof. Dr. Oliver Gutfleisch with ERC Advanced Grant COOL INNOV.
COOL INNOV will attempt to achieve a breakthrough in caloric cooling based on magnetocaloric materials by rethinking the whole concept of this technology. Instead of the conventional idea of squeezing the best out of magnetostructural phase-change materials in relatively low magnetic fields, a second stimulus introduced in the form of pressure can help the COOL INNOV team to exploit, rather than avoid, the hysteresis that is inherent in these materials. It should lead to more efficient refrigeration, with a commercially viable technology that could satisfy the urgent global need.
COOL INNOV received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant no. 743116 - project Cool Innov).
COOL INNOV will attempt to achieve a breakthrough in caloric cooling based on magnetocaloric materials by rethinking the whole concept of this technology. Instead of the conventional idea of squeezing the best out of magnetostructural phase-change materials in relatively low magnetic fields, a second stimulus introduced in the form of pressure can help the COOL INNOV team to exploit, rather than avoid, the hysteresis that is inherent in these materials. It should lead to more efficient refrigeration, with a commercially viable technology that could satisfy the urgent global need.
COOL INNOV received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant no. 743116 - project Cool Innov).
COOL INNOV Research
Safe and efficient magnetic refrigeration
Environmentally friendly and energy efficient alternative to the conventional cooling based on the magnetocaloric effect, taken one step further
Team
The Cool Innov team consists of experienced scientists and young talented students working in experimental and theoretical physics
First principle calculations
DFT-based high-throughput search for new
compounds combined with detailed phase
transitions calculations
Finite element method simulations
FEM simulations including micromagnetics for
calculating the magnetic properties and
behavior of new magnetocaloric materials
Publications
Articles published in the framework of the
project and other articles on the topic of
multi-calorics and related physics
Additive manufacturing
Implementing 3D printing for engineering heat exchangers with complex structures from magnetocaloric materials
Development of new materials
Synthesis and modification using advanced processing routes of mechanically stable materials with the large magnetocaloric effect
Multi-stimuli concept
Utilization of magnetic field and uniaxial
mechanical stress for enhancing the
efficiency of magnetocaloric devices
Devices and equipment
Modern techniques and versatile devices are available to characterise the magnetic and mechanical properties of new materials
News
On the Impact of Additive Manufacturing Processes on the Microstructure and Magnetic Properties of Co–Ni–Ga Shape Memory Heusler Alloys Microstructure design of Co-Ni-Ga shape memory alloys by additive manufacturing can be used to prevent intergranular cracking and premature failure. The comparison of microstructure, composition and magnetic properties of Co-Ni-Ga Heusler alloy processed by direct energy deposition and laser powder bed fusion shows large differences in terms of precipitate formation and martensitic transformation behavior.
This article by F. Scheibel, C. Lauhoff, S. Riegg, P. Krooß, E. Bruder, E. Adabifiroozjaei, L. Molina-Luna, S. Böhm, Y. I. Chumlyakov, T. Niendorf, and O. Gutfleisch is published in Advanced Engineering Materials.
Congratulations Lukas! We congratulate our colleague Lukas Pfeuffer to his very successful PhD defense. His thesis has the title “Concepts and microstructure design for multicaloric cooling using Ni-Mn-based Heusler compounds” and was evaluated with distinction. The traditional celebrations in our group had to be adapted to corona regulations and were carried out outside with distance. We thank Lukas for his dedicated work in the last years and wish him all the best for his future career. As a start we are very happy, that he will continue his work as a post doc in the functinonal materials group.