Study of electrocaloric effect in barium titanate nanoparticle with core-shell model

A quantitative core-shell structure model on the grain size effects is applied to investigate the effect of grain size on the electrocaloric effect of BaTiO3 nanoparticles. In this study, considering the grain surface effects, the nanoparticle is composed of inner tetragonal core and surface cubic layer. Theoretical analysis indicates that the adiabatic temperature change peak is depressed and diffuse in BaTiO3 nanoparticles. With decreasing grain size, adiabatic temperature change peak moves to lower temperature. Moreover, it is worth noting that the maximum of adiabatic temperature change increases with the increase of the applied electric field gradient and decreases with the increase of the initial field. Crown Copyright (C) 2013 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.