Magneto-caloric effect in the pseudo-binary intermetallic YPrFe17 compound

TL;DR

This study synthesizes and characterizes the magneto-caloric properties of the YPrFe17 intermetallic compound, revealing its potential for magnetic refrigeration near room temperature with notable entropy change and cooling power.

Contribution

First detailed investigation of the magneto-caloric effect in YPrFe17, including synthesis, structural analysis, and magnetic entropy change measurements.

Findings

Broad isothermal magnetic entropy change near 290 K

Relative cooling power of approximately 100 J/kg

Single master curve for entropy change under different magnetic fields

Abstract

We have synthesized the intermetallic YPrFe17 compound by arc-melting. X-ray and neutron powder diffraction show that the crystal structure is rhombohedral with View the MathML source space group (Th2Zn17-type). The investigated compound exhibits a broad isothermal magnetic entropy change {\Delta}SM(T) associated with the ferro-to-paramagnetic phase transition (TC \approx 290 K). The |{\Delta}SM| (\approx 2.3 J kg-1 K-1) and the relative cooling power (\approx 100 J kg-1) have been calculated for applied magnetic field changes up to 1.5 T. A single master curve for {\Delta}SM under different values of the magnetic field change can be obtained by a rescaling of the temperature axis. The results are compared and discussed in terms of the magneto-caloric effect in the isostructural R2Fe17 (R = Y, Pr and Nd) binary intermetallic alloys.