Abstract
Solid state refrigeration based on ferroelectric materials can potentially be competing in not-in-kind refrigeration technology. However, their functionality is currently limited to Curie temperatures. Through this article, authors have attempted to describe an unexplored component of the stress-driven caloric effect, obtainable beyond the Curie point. The phenomenon, termed as the flexocaloric effect (FCE), relies on inhomogeneous straining of the crystal lattice to induce polarization in centrosymmetric crystals (flexoelectricity). For this study, a truncated pyramid geometry was selected, and the dependence of sample height on caloric capacity was studied. A peak temperature change of 1.75 K (313 K) was estimated for Ba0.67Sr0.33TiO3 (BST) ceramics employing a truncated pyramid configuration.