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eddiekoski t1_j34yin4 wrote

TLDR:

Instead of liquid to gass cooling you can probably do solid to liquid cooling.

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JoanNoir t1_j35r36w wrote

As an icebox does?

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eddiekoski t1_j38024w wrote

But imagine instead of keep adding ice, The coolant goes back-and-forth between solid and liquid It would be a powered refrigerator instead of a passive refrigerator

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okopchak t1_j37p54n wrote

As I understand the post, by using controlled application of ions to promote phase change, and do so in a reversible fashion using solids to liquid, you could move heat with less need for things like a compressor. Depending on specific heats and heat of fusion could have some cool uses. Also not needing to allow for a pressure change (or at least as much as liquid refrigerants need) would be pretty helpful on a noise front

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tiregroove t1_j366hx6 wrote

Does it involve a bag of ice and a fan? I think Walmart already has that market cornered.

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Creative_soja t1_j37o704 wrote

How energy efficient is it as compared to the existing ones? Can we use it at homes? What are the other applications?

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jack_12j t1_j37c38b wrote

I admit I only skimmed this, but it looks like they're taking advantage of colligative properties to induce the phase change... but in order to do that, they're causing ions to "flow" into a solid material so that it melts into a liquid.

I wonder how they make that happen; how, exactly, can they cause ions to flow into a solid?

[Not skeptical (necessarily), just curious]

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Jnoper t1_j385p81 wrote

I don’t know how it’s being done here but in a standard battery, there’s what’s called a salt bridge. Basically a paper towel soaked in salt water that allows ions to pass through without mixing the chemicals on both halves of the battery.

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