Ferroelectric nanocomposites: Influence of nanoparticle size distribution on electrocaloric conversion parameters

The study of the electrocaloric effect in ensembles of ferroelectric nanoparticles is of significant interest for fundamental research and its practical applications in solidstate coolers. The exploration of electrocaloric cooling is of great importance to finding solutions to environmental and energyefficiency issues in currently available refrigeration technologies. In this work we calculated the polarization, electrocaloric temperature change, and dielectric permittivity of the nanocomposite containing non-interacting ferroelectric nanoparticles with different size distributions, and analyzed the dependences of polarization, dielectric permittivity and electrocaloric temperature change on the distribution function of the particles sizes. As anticipated, the properties of the nanocomposite approach that of the average size nanoparticles with a narrowing in the dispersion of particles sizes within the nanocomposite.