https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ade1696

Fuck Science for paywalling research. May they rot in hell.

The article implies they are using electric charge to bring the ions into and out of solution to trigger melting and recrystalization. Does anyone have actual details about the process?

Also, is this paper saying it has a COP of 0.3? That’s terrible compared to typical evaporative refrigeration.

Still waiting for the reverse cycle microwave…

2 major problems with this.

1. The melting and freezing point of various materials is fixed. This is something that may work great at 90F but not so great at 100F.

2. Unless I’m reading this wrong, this requires the transport of solids or salty liquids. That’s going to be a challenge. Salty liquids tend to be corrosive and solids aren’t easily pumped places.

Beyond that, the article assumes that all refrigerants have high gwp. The industry is currently in the process of moving to either CO2 or propane. Both of which have fairly small gwp. They do have their own problems, CO2 needs high pressure and propane is explosive. However, they are workable and already in use.

The key reason we use gas is it can cold (or heat) at pretty wide temperature ranges.

This post made me fix my refrigerator thank you

I JUST bought a new refrigerator yesterday and already it’s obsolete.