Enhancement of magnetocaloric effect in mischmetal doped La-Fe-Si alloys

The influence of partial substitution of mischmetal on the structure, Curie temperature and magnetocaloric effect has been investigated in La1-xMxFe11.5Si1.5 alloys. X-ray diffraction patterns indicate the alloys crystallize mainly in NaZn13-type cubic structure and the amount of secondary α-Fe phase obviously reduces in the mischmetal doped alloys. As the content of mischmetal increases, the Curie temperature is reduced from 198.1 K for x = 0 to 184.2 K for x = 0.3 and the thermal hysteresis is enlarged from 3.5 K for x = 0 to 8.2 K for x = 0.3. Upon a field change from 0 to 3 T, the obtained maximum isothermal entropy change values are 17.2, 19.8, 37.8 and 47.9 J/kgK for x = 0, 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3, respectively. The entropy changes due to the latent heat of first-order transitions are estimated to be 11.3, 14.7, 18.5 and 23.4 J/kgK for x = 0, 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3, respectively. The enhancement of giant magnetocaloric MCE in La1-xMxFe11.5Si1.5 alloys originates from the strengthened itinerant electron metamagnetic transitions by adding the mischmetal. Our result suggests that the mischmetal doped NaZn13-type La-Fe-Si alloys are potential candidates of refrigerants for magnetic refrigeration.