Barocaloric effect and materials: A review

doi:10.1088/1674-1056/ae53b2

Abstract As the global energy crisis and environmental issues intensify, the development of efficient and environmentally friendly novel refrigeration technology has become a significant focus in the field of scientific research and engineering. Conventional vapor compression refrigeration utilizes vapor refrigerants with high global warming potentials, which not only consume huge amounts of energy but also adversely affect the environment. In recent years, solid-state refrigeration technology has emerged as a research hotspot because of its controllable refrigerants, high energy efficiency, and environmental friendliness. Among the various refrigeration technologies that yield caloric effects through external-field-induced phase transitions, barocaloric refrigeration technology has been highly anticipated due to its low required driving pressure for refrigerant materials, large entropic change upon phase transition, and potentially high efficiency. On the other hand, many types of barocaloric materials are currently available, including intermetallic compounds, inorganic and organic materials, as well as organic—inorganic hybrid materials. Based on the barocaloric effect mechanism and the fundamental principles of various barocaloric materials, this paper summarizes the latest research in this field. It reviews the origins of the caloric effects of different types of barocaloric materials. The future development directions and application prospects of barocaloric solid-state refrigeration technology and materials are outlined.

Keywords: barocaloric effect phase transition entropy change solid-state refrigeration

Received: 10 December 2025
Revised: 06 March 2026
Accepted manuscript online: 18 March 2026

PACS:	05.70.Fh	(Phase transitions: general studies)
	65.40.gd	(Entropy)
	75.30.Sg	(Magnetocaloric effect, magnetic cooling)
	75.85.+t	(Magnetoelectric effects, multiferroics)

Fund: This work is financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 52425107, 52401253, and 52571021), the Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. ZDBS-LYJSC002), the Innovation Fund of the Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. 2024-PY05), the Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning Province (Grant No. 2024-BSBA-41), and the Postdoctoral Fellowship Program of the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. GZC20232741).

Corresponding Authors: Bing Li
E-mail: bingli@imr.ac.cn

Cite this article:

Zi-Qi Guan(关子奇), Chang-Jiang Bao(包长江), Ji-Wei Yao(姚继伟), Nan Zhou(周楠), Yuan-Wen Feng(冯远文), Hao-Yu Wang(王皓宇), Kun Zhang(张琨), and Bing Li(李昺) Barocaloric effect and materials: A review 2026 Chin. Phys. B 35 070501

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