The new FNR Award category ‘Outstanding Scientific Achievement’ rewards research shaping its field, rather than only looking at publications or marketable products. 2021 winner Emmanuel Defay and his team achieved a breakthrough in a new technology that could be used in more eco-friendly and efficient cooling systems in the future.
Electrocaloric (EC) materials are either made of ceramics or polymers. They work thanks to the electrocaloric effect: when you apply an electric field, they heat up, and when you remove the field, they cool down.
This allows the materials to be used as cooling modules – the ultimate goal of the team’s research. On their prototype, the scientists obtained a temperature twice as high as the previous world record that stood for 30 years.
FNR Award reviewers independently highlighted how the team’s research is firmly putting Luxembourg on the refrigeration innovation map, and that the scientist’s breakthrough paves the way for science to make leaps in the field of electro-caloric cooling.
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