Ultrasensitive barocaloric material for room-temperature solid-state refrigeration

One of the greatest obstacles to the real application of solid-state refrigeration is the huge driving fields. Here, we report a giant barocaloric effect in inorganic NH(4)I with reversible entropy changes of [Formula: see text] ∼71 J K(−1) kg(−1) around room temperature, associated with a structural phase transition. The phase transition temperature, T(t), varies dramatically with pressure at a rate of dT(t)/dP ∼0.79 K MPa(−1), which leads to a very small saturation driving pressure of ΔP ∼40 MPa, an extremely large barocaloric strength of [Formula: see text] ∼1.78 J K(−1) kg(−1) MPa(−1), as well as a broad temperature span of ∼41 K under 80 MPa. Comprehensive characterizations of the crystal structures and atomic dynamics by neutron scattering reveal that a strong reorientation-vibration coupling is responsible for the large pressure sensitivity of T(t). This work is expected to advance the practical application of barocaloric refrigeration.