Enormous quantities of heat are available in air, soil, water, exhaust air from buildings, and in waste water of any kind. However these heat sources are use-less for heating purposes since their temperatures are lower than the tempera-ture required for heating. Heat pumps can be used to extract heat from these sources with a small expenditure of additional energy and up-grade and deliver the energy as useful heat for room heating. The heat pump cycle employs the well-known vapour compression cycle. The amount of heat delivered by a heat pump is equal to the amount of energy extracted from the heat source plus the heat equivalent to the compression work of the heat pump. Heat pumps, of course, are being generally accepted as outstanding energy saving units due their coefficient of performance (COP). Heat pumps for house heating have been used extensively in many countries and are especially common in Sweden. The annual growth rate of heat pump usage in Sweden is the same as in rest of Europe. According to the Swedish heat pump association, between 1986 to August 2003, the number of installed heat pump units in Sweden was 332,309. The demand for heat pumps started to increase from the year 1995 and in the year 2002, approximately 40,000 heat pump units were installed. Among the many types available, single-family heat pumps providing heating capacity of about 5 kW are widely popular. The main drawbacks of heat pumps are the complexity of the systems, high cost, need of technical knowledge, safety hazards and environmental effects of certain refrigerants, etc. An efficient heat pump with small refrigerant charge would have less of some of these drawbacks and could be a competitive alterna-tive to other heating processes. In this study, methods of refrigerant charge minimisation without reducing the performance of a small capacity (5 kW) heat pump have been investigated. Work has been focused on finding refrigerant charge distribution in different components of the heat pump, on finding out the solubility of refrigerant (pro-pane) with different compressor lubrications oils, on testing different types of compact heat exchangers, on constructing new minichannel heat exchangers and on finding correlations for calculating the heat transfer of minichannel heat exchangers. The results included in this thesis have been presented in four con-ference papers and five journal papers of which two were published and three were submitted for publication. / QC 20100707

Geschichtete bzw. 2D Materialien bieten interessante Eigenschaften für Halbleiteranwendungen, wie Photonik durch direkte Bandlücken und Miniaturisierung durch atomar dünne Schichten. Diese Arbeit behandelt die Isolierung von 2D-Materialien und die Kontrolle über ionische Modulation in den resultierenden Bauteilen. Im ersten Kapitel wird eine silbervermittelte Exfoliation für MoS₂ eingeführt, die Monolagen mit großer Fläche liefert. Diese Technik ist ebenso leistungsfähig wie goldvermittelte Prozesse und erfordert nur einen einfachen Heizschritt, was zukünftige Exfoliationen erleichtern könnte. Die folgenden Kapitel befassen sich mit Funktionen, die durch kontrolliertes ionisches Gating ermöglicht werden. Im zweiten Kapitel wird die kontrollierte Li-Interkalation in LixZrNCl genutzt, um Supraleitung bei niedriger Ladungsträgerdichte zu untersuchen (BCS-BEC-Übergang). Durch Steuerung der Li-Menge wurden Veränderungen in der Vortex-Dynamik aufgedeckt, z.B. ein Vorzeichenwechsel im Vortex-Hall-Effekt, was auf eine Veränderung der Vortex-Flussdynamik in BEC-ähnlicher Supraleitung zurückgeführt wurde. Diese Erkenntnisse sind relevant für die Entwicklung von Supraleitern. Das dritte Kapitel wechselt zu Bauteilen auf Basis der elektrochemischen Doppelschicht (EDL). Ein 2D MoS₂-synaptischer Transistor wurde demonstriert, wobei gezeigt wurde, dass die Hysterese auf Ionenretention an der EDL zurückzuführen ist. Diese Kombination eines 2D-Materials mit einem Polymerelektrolyten emuliert synaptische Lernprozesse wie gepaarte Puls-Fazilitation und arbeitet energieeffizient. Das letzte Kapitel verlagert das ionische Gating auf das Substrat mittels Li-Ionen-leitender Keramiken für operando-Messungen an 2D-Materialien. Zusammenfassend demonstriert diese Arbeit neben der Exfoliation die vielfältigen Funktionen, die durch kontrolliertes ionisches Gating verfügbar sind, einschließlich Supraleitung bei niedriger Ladungsträgerdichte, neuromorphe Bauteile und operando-Plattformen. / Layered materials and their 2D single-layer forms offer interesting properties for semiconductor applications, such as photonics due to direct band gaps and miniaturization through atomically thin layers. This work addresses the isolation of 2D materials and the control via ionic modulation in the resulting devices. In the first chapter, a silver-mediated exfoliation for MoS₂ is introduced, yielding large-area monolayers. This technique is as effective as gold-mediated processes and requires only a simple heating step, potentially simplifying future exfoliations. The following chapters explore functions enabled by controlled ionic gating. The second chapter utilizes controlled Li intercalation in LixZrNCl to investigate superconductivity at low charge carrier densities to investigate superconductivity within the BCS-BEC crossover. By adjusting the Li content, changes in vortex dynamics were revealed, such as a sign reversal in the vortex Hall effect, attributed to altered vortex flow in increasingly BEC-like superconductivity. These findings are relevant for the development of future superconductors. The third chapter shifts to devices based on the electric double layer (EDL). A 2D MoS₂ synaptic transistor was demonstrated, showing that hysteresis and hence the short-term memory effect stems from ion retention in the EDL formed at the 2D material electrolyte interface. This combination of a 2D material with a polymer electrolyte emulates synaptic learning processes like paired-pulse facilitation and operates in an energy-efficient manner. The final chapter translates the ionic gating to the substrate using Li-ion-conducting ceramics for operando measurements on 2D materials in “open-hood” devices. In summary, besides exfoliation, this work demonstrates the diverse functions achievable through controlled ionic gating applied to 2D and layered materials, including superconductivity at low charge carrier densities, neuromorphic devices, and operando platforms.