(Inside Science) — Refrigeration has been around for about 100 years, but hasn’t changed much in that time. A time traveller from the early 1900s would still recognize the big box full of chilled food in your kitchen. But soon, researchers say, new materials could replace refrigeration as we know it, making it more adaptable, efficient and environmentally friendly.
Standard fridges work using a process called vapor compression. A compressor increases the pressure on a gas, which raises its temperature, and pushes it into coils on the back of the appliance. In the relatively cooler air of the kitchen, the hot gas releases some of its heat and becomes a liquid. As that liquid flows back into coils inside the fridge, the pressure is removed and the liquid evaporates into a gas, absorbing heat in the process.
