Exploring the heat capacity and magnetocaloric behaviors of rare-earth based multicomponent (Ce0.71Pr0.07Nd0.22)2Fe17-xSix alloys

The rare-earth based multicomponent (Ce0.71Pr0.07Nd0.22)2Fe17-xSix (x = 0-0.6) alloys were fabricated by conventional arc melting following the standard annealing and quenching processes. The prepared alloys were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), backscattered scanning electron (BSE) microscope, energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, magnetization, and heat capacity measurements. Combination of Rietveld refinement of XRD patterns, EDX/BSE analyses confirm the formation of stable rhombohedral Th2Zn17 type crystal structure with R-3 m space group in all studied samples. The investigated samples experience second-order phase transition as confirmed through phenomenological universal scaling ana-lysis. The magnetic entropy change (-& UDelta;SM) and associated relative cooling power (RCP) values for all compositions were found in the range of 1.1-1.4 Jkg-1K-1 and 55-66 Jkg-1 under magnetic field change (& UDelta;H) of 0-1 T. The & UDelta;SM curves as a function of temperature exhibit a wide working temperature range (& delta;TFWHM) over 40 K for all studied compositions. The performance-cost ratio - & UDelta;SM/cost and RCP/cost values are estimated to be 0.1 JK-1$-1 and 5.0 J$-1, respectively. In particular, a large adiabatic temperature change of 7.36 K and 8.09 K was achieved for x = 0.2 and x = 0.4, respectively, at low & UDelta;H= 0-1 T. The better perfor-mance-cost ratio and good magnetocaloric properties with near-zero magnetic hysteresis loss may make these alloys promising candidates for magnetic refrigeration.& COPY; 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.