Colossal and fully reversible barocaloric effect for sustainable cooling in a pressure-sensitive spin-crossover complex

Barocaloric refrigeration has great potential to replace traditional vapor-compression systems, which are conspicuously harmful to the environment. Investigating barocaloric effect driven by a practical pressure remains challenging. Here, we report that the spin-crossover (SCO) complex Fe(PC4HH)2 (PC4HH = 4-hydroxy-N′-((pyridin-2-yl)-methylene)-benzohydrazide) exhibits a colossal and reversible barocaloric entropy change (ΔSr, up to ~125 J·K−1·kg−1) under a small pressure ∼7.5 MPa owing to the extremely high pressure sensitivity of transition temperature (dTc/dP, 5.56 K/MPa). Synchrotron radiation PXRD demonstrate that the source of the enhanced ΔSr and the ultra-large dTc/dP come from the gas (air) adsorption of pressure transimitting medium. The superior pressure sensitivity and outstanding barocaloric performance provide a feasible way to exploit novel barocaloric materials by utilizing the complexation properties of SCO materials with gas. Barocaloric refrigeration has great potential to replace traditional vapor-compression systems, which are conspicuously harmful to the environment. Here, the authors report that pressure-induced spin-crossover transitions in an iron complex can produce a colossal and reversible barocaloric entropy change under a small pressure.

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Publication Details

Journal
Nature Communications
Published
2026-09-15
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-77679-7
Primary Topic
Magnetism in coordination complexes
Type
article
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article

Colossal and fully reversible barocaloric effect for sustainable cooling in a pressure-sensitive spin-crossover complex

Oliver Gutfleisch, Fengxia Hu, Iván da Silva, Yue Kan et al.
Nature Communications
Magnetism in coordination complexes
article

Colossal and fully reversible barocaloric effect for sustainable cooling in a pressure-sensitive spin-crossover complex

Oliver Gutfleisch, Fengxia Hu, Iván da Silva, Yue Kan, Daopeng Zhang, V. Franco, Quanjun Li, Yuexing Zhang, Jia Yan Law, Yuansha Chen, Yunzhong Chen, Jing Wang, Yang Ren, Changqing Jin, Zheng-Ying Tian, Wang Li-jin, Han Liang, Qing-Zhen Huang, Si-Wei Yan, Rui-Xin Li, Bao-Gen Shen, Zi-Long Zhao, Shuo Meng
article en

Abstract

Barocaloric refrigeration has great potential to replace traditional vapor-compression systems, which are conspicuously harmful to the environment. Investigating barocaloric effect driven by a practical pressure remains challenging. Here, we report that the spin-crossover (SCO) complex Fe(PC4HH)2 (PC4HH = 4-hydroxy-N′-((pyridin-2-yl)-methylene)-benzohydrazide) exhibits a colossal and reversible barocaloric entropy change (ΔSr, up to ~125 J·K−1·kg−1) under a small pressure ∼7.5 MPa owing to the extremely high pressure sensitivity of transition temperature (dTc/dP, 5.56 K/MPa). Synchrotron radiation PXRD demonstrate that the source of the enhanced ΔSr and the ultra-large dTc/dP come from the gas (air) adsorption of pressure transimitting medium. The superior pressure sensitivity and outstanding barocaloric performance provide a feasible way to exploit novel barocaloric materials by utilizing the complexation properties of SCO materials with gas. Barocaloric refrigeration has great potential to replace traditional vapor-compression systems, which are conspicuously harmful to the environment. Here, the authors report that pressure-induced spin-crossover transitions in an iron complex can produce a colossal and reversible barocaloric entropy change under a small pressure.

Nature Communications
Shandong University of Technology (CN), Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (GB), Science and Technology Facilities Council (GB), City University of Hong Kong (HK), Jilin University (CN), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Technische Universität Darmstadt (DE), Beijing University of Technology (CN), China Spallation Neutron Source (CN), Shanghai Advanced Research Institute (CN), Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory (CN), Institute of Physics (CN), University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Ningbo Institute of Industrial Technology (CN), Dezhou University (CN), Universidad de Sevilla (ES), University of Hong Kong (HK), University of Science and Technology Beijing (CN)
Responsible consumption and production
Openalex Percentile: Top 28%
Magnetism in coordination complexes
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