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Has anyone experimented with solid-liquid phase changing regenerators?

For example the wire mesh could be coated with a metal that melts at
low temperature like, tin or bismuth, then it would absorb more heat
and give off more heat upon freezing when going the other direction.
It would have to be a coating that would stay on from surface tension
and that did not oxidize easily with air as the working gas.

I suggest turning your idea inside-out - charging a ductile metal tube with a reversible phase-change material, then drawing the tubing out to very small diameter. This is a very well-understood technique - it just requires a lot of patience, and the phase-change material has to be able to take the heat of the intermediate annealing steps. Marc de Piolenc, Iligan City, Philippines