Large temperature span and giant refrigerant capacity in elastocaloric Cu-Zn-Al shape memory alloys

We report on the elastocaloric effect in a Cu-Zn-Al shape memory alloy. We show that both the isothermal entropy and adiabatic temperature changes are large and reproducible upon field cycling over a very broad temperature span of ∼130 K. The combination of large entropy and such a broad temperature span results in an outstanding refrigerant capacity of ∼2300 J/kg.