Title
Designed materials with the giant magnetocaloric effect near room temperature
Publication Date
11-2019
Department
Materials Science and Engineering; Chemical and Biological Engineering; Physics and Astronomy; Ames Laboratory
Campus Units
Ames Laboratory, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Physics and Astronomy
OSTI ID+
1575215
Report Number
IS-J 10053
DOI
10.1016/j.actamat.2019.09.023
Journal Title
Acta Materialia
Volume Number
180
First Page
341
Last Page
348
Abstract
The coupling between structural and magnetic degrees of freedom is crucial for realization of interesting physical phenomena associated with magneto-structural transformations resembling austenite-to-martensite transitions. Despite substantial efforts in design and discovery of materials with strong magnetocaloric effects, majority of viable candidates are composed of non-earth-abundant and toxic elements, while others involve challenging syntheses and post processing. Guided by advanced density functional theory calculation, we report a new family of compounds, i.e., Mn0.5Fe0.5NiSi1-xAlx [x = 0.045–0.07] exhibiting a giant magnetocaloric effect (MCE) that is tunable near room temperature. Their MCE functionality arises from a distinct magneto-structural transformation between a paramagnetic hexagonal Ni2In-type phase and ferromagnetic orthorhombic TiNiSi-type phase that can be actuated by magnetic field and/or pressure. As the transition is sensitive to external hydrostatic pressure, the same materials should also exhibit a strong barocaloric response in addition to the giant MCE.
DOE Contract Number(s)
AC02-07CH11358
Language
en
Department of Energy Subject Categories
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
Publisher
Iowa State University Digital Repository, Ames IA (United States)
