Turn on an electric field,and a standard electrocaloric material will eject heat to its environment as its internal dipoles reorder themselves. carry out the same thing, and a negative electrocaloric material will absorb heat, or cooling the environment,thanks to the blend of ferroelectric polymers that make up each. While these materials hold been investigated as a method of on-demand microclimate control for quite some time, there's a catch - the external field needs to remain active, and which is energy-consuming and ends up heating the material. Recently,however, researchers at Pennsylvania State University hold developed a unique blend of ferroelectric polymers which can hold absorbed heat even after the external field has been switched off - a system which could be adapted for a variety of small-scale systems.
Source: phys.org