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As a nontrivial solid state of matter, the glassy-crystal state embraces physical features of both crystalline and amorphous solids, where a long-range ordered periodic structure formed by the mass centers of constituent molecules accommodates orientational glasses. Here, we discover and validate a glassy-crystal state in 2-amino-2-methyl-1,3-propanediol (AMP, C4H11NO2) by neutron scattering and complementary broadband dielectric spectroscopy (BDS) measurements. The freezing process of the dynamic orientational disorder is manifested at relaxation times well described by the Vogel-Fulcher-Tammann (VFT) law and the strongly frequency-dependent freezing temperature ranging from around 225 K at 0.1 Hz to above room temperature in the GHz region. At room temperature, the supercooled state is extremely sensitive to pressure such that a few MPa pressure can induce crystallization to the ordered crystal state, eventually leading to a temperature increase by 48 K within 20 s, a significant reduction of visible light transmittance from about 95% to a few percentages, and a remarkable decrease of electrical conductivity by three orders of magnitude. These ultrasensitive baroresponsivities might find their applications in low-grade waste heat recycling, pressure sensors and non-volatile memory devices. It is expected that glassy crystals serve as an emerging platform for exploiting exotic states of matter and the associated fantastic applications., Totally 13 figures and 1 table

Additional file 1.

Nowadays the world is facing a prominent paradox regarding thermal energy. The production of heat accounts for more than 50% of global final energy consumption while the waste heat potential analysis reveals that 72% of the global primary energy consumption is lost after conversion mainly in the form of heat. Towards global decarbonization, it is of vital importance to establish a solution to thermal energy utilization under full control. Here, we propose and realize an unprecedented concept -- barocaloric thermal batteries based on the inverse colossal barocaloric effect of NH4SCN. Thermal charging is initialized upon pressurization through an order-to-disorder phase transition below 364 K and in turn the discharging of 43 J g-1, which are eleven times more than the input mechanical energy, occurs on demand at depressurization at lower temperatures. The discharging is also manifested as a directly measured temperature rise of 12 K. The thermodynamic equilibrium nature of the pressure-restrained heat-carrying phase guarantees stable storage and/or transport over a variety of temporal and/or spatial scales. The barocaloric thermal batteries reinforced by their solid microscopic mechanism are expected to significantly advance the ability to take advantage of waste heat., 5 figures in the main text plus the Extended Data. Adiabatic-temperature-change data were added

Additional file 3: Table S3. Annotation summary with DIAMOND software.

Additional file 7: Figure S1. Genes differentially expressed between groups after blood-feeding and long-term starvation.

Additional file 1: Table S1. Specific primers used in the RT-qPCR validation of RNA-seq results.