AS-05: Magnetic and magnetocaloric properties of the multi-component Mn_0.5Fe_0.5Ni0.95Cr0.05Si0.95Al0.05

A selected group of solid-state materials are known to exhibit first-order phase transition where their magnetic and crystalline properties change simultaneously. This coupled phase transition is of strong interest due to the numerous functional properties associated with them. The magnetocaloric effect is one such property that can be exploited in energy-efficient magnetic refrigeration technology. Here we present an experimental study on the first-order phase transition and associated magnetocaloric properties of Mn0.5Fe0.5Ni0.95Cr0.05Si0.95Al0.05. The material is related to the Mn1-xFex-δNiδSi1-yAly family whose phase transition temperatures are tunable [1, 2]. X-ray diffraction data for the sample showed that both the orthorhombic and hexagonal crystalline phases coexist at room temperature. The first-order phase transition was observed at ~325 K during heating and at ~306 K during cooling, showing a thermomagnetic hysteresis of ~19 K. The entropy changes evaluated from the isothermal magnetization data peaked at 321 K during warming and at 312 K during cooling, showing a thermomagnetic hysteresis of ~9 K. Peak entropy changes of -16 J kg-1 K-1 and -42 J kg-1 K-1 were observed on heating for field changes of 20 kOe and 50 kOe, respectively. The associated refrigeration capacities were 74 J/kg and 194 J/kg. The experimental results and related discussion of this study will be presented.References: [1] A. Biswas, A.K. Pathak, N.A. Zarkevich, X. Liu, Y. Mudryk, V. Balema, D.D. Johnson, and V.K. Pecharsky, Acta Mater. 180, 341 (2019). [2] Jacob Casey, Babajide Akintunde, Ranjit Chandra Das, Christopher Hanley, Brandon Reese, Mahmud Khan, Arjun K. Pathak, J. Magn. Magn. Mater. 579, 170862 (2023).