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
We congratulate our Functional Materials´ spin-off MagnoTherm Solutions! MagnoTherm was selected for the highly competitive EIC Accelerator (European Innovation Council). EIC supports high potential start-ups to develop and scale-up game changing innovation with a particular focus on the objectives of the European Green Deal. With the 2.5m€ grant MagnoTherm will further develop its revolutionary technology in order to make refrigeration F-gas free and highly efficient.
https://eic.ec.europa.eu/news/largest-ever-funding-round-european-innovation-council-accelerator-99-innovative-companies-set-2021-12-16_en 
Publication of Phase-field modelling of paramagnetic austenite–ferromagnetic martensite transformation coupled with mechanics and micromagnetics in International Journal of Solids and Structures With the goal of simulating the multi-stimuli concept, we propose a multi-physics phase-field model for the simulation of a tetragonal martensite and cubic austenite. The phase-field model is based on a Landau 2-3-4 polynomial with temperature-dependent coefficients to allow for the simulation of the transition between the martensite and austenite state. For the magnetic martensite state, the ferroelastic and -magnetic domain structures for typical magnetic shape memory alloys (MSMA) were simulated together with the influence of external stimuli on these. Application of uniaxial pressure and magnetic fields during the simulation of the martensite-austenite transition resulted in a shift of the transition temperature towards higher temperatures compared to no stimulus applied.
The article Phase-field modelling of paramagnetic austenite–ferromagnetic martensite transformation coupled with mechanics and micromagnetics by D. Ohmer, M. Yi, O. Gutfleisch, and B.-X. Xu is published in International Journal of Solids and Structures 238 (2022) 111365. See more of our activity in News