Researchers at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology have developed a solid-state cooling device that kept a steady performance through one million operating cycles.
The device uses a fatigue-resistant shape-memory alloy instead of the refrigerants used in many traditional systems. Those older systems can use a lot of energy and chemicals that harm the climate or ozone layer.
In testing, the new device produced 400 watts of cooling and maintained a temperature difference of 41 degrees Celsius over one million cycles without losing performance.
The team published its findings in the journal Joule and is now working toward an air conditioner based on the technology.
