{"paper_id":"442b2fd2-52ed-40a2-9fc4-17e50b54b778","body_text":"An Elastocaloric Polymer with Ultra-High Solid-State Cooling via Defect Engineering | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article An Elastocaloric Polymer with Ultra-High Solid-State Cooling via Defect Engineering Zhaohan Yu, Duo Xu, Zumrat Usmanova, Chuwei Ye, Aditya Swarnkar, and 7 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-5838867/v2 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 2 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Show more versions Abstract Elastocaloric polymers, whose performance typically rely on phase transformation between amorphous chains and crystalline domains, offer a promising alternative to traditional refrigeration technologies. While engineering polymer-network architecture has shown the potential to boost elastocaloric performance, the role of topological defects remains unexplored despite their prevalence in real polymers. This study reports a defect-engineering approach in end-linked star polymers (ELSPs) that enables an adiabatic temperature change of up to 8.14± 1.6 °C at an ambient temperature of 60 °C, showing an enhancement of 39% compared to ELSPs with negligible defects. This defect-regulated solid-state cooling is attributed to two competing effects of dangling-chain defects on strain-induced crystallization (SIC) and temperature-induced crystallization (TIC), synergistically regulating the adiabatic temperature change. Specifically, increasing dangling-chain defects monotonically lowers ELSPs’ mechanical performance at high temperatures due to suppressed SIC, but nonmonotonically impacts the mechanical performance at low temperatures due to the competition between suppressed SIC and enhanced TIC. Physical sciences/Materials science/Soft materials/Polymers Physical sciences/Physics/Chemical physics Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Supplementary Files SupportingInformation.pdf Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 2 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Show more versions Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {\"props\":{\"pageProps\":{\"initialData\":{\"identity\":\"rs-5838867\",\"acceptedTermsAndConditions\":true,\"allowDirectSubmit\":true,\"archivedVersions\":[],\"articleType\":\"Article\",\"associatedPublications\":[],\"authors\":[{\"id\":408425423,\"identity\":\"bca5f085-3d5c-41bc-b076-a58f58160966\",\"order_by\":0,\"name\":\"Zhaohan Yu\",\"email\":\"\",\"orcid\":\"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7462-126X\",\"institution\":\"Department of Mechanical Engineering, Michigan State 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