Materials for Room Temperature Magnetic Refrigeration

Magnetic refrigeration is a cooling method, which holds the promise of being cleaner and more efficient than conventional vapor-compression cooling. Much research has been done during the last two decades on various magnetic materials for this purpose and today a number of materials are considered candidates as they fulfill many of the requirements for a magnetic refrigerant. However, no one material stands out and the field is still active with improving the known materials and in the search for a better one. Magnetic cooling is based on the magnetocaloric effect, which causes a magnetic material to change its temperature when a magnetic field is applied or removed. For room temperature cooling, one utilizes that the magnetocaloric effect peaks near magnetic phase transitions and so the materials of interest all have a critical temperature within the range of 250 – 310 K. A magnetic refrigerant should fulfill a number of criteria, among these a large magnetic entropy change, a large adiabatic temperature change, preferably little to no thermal or magnetic hysteresis and the material should have the stability required for long term use. As the temperature range required for room temperature cooling is some 40 – 50 K, the magnetic refrigerant should also be able to cover this temperature span either by exhibiting a very broad peak in magnetocaloric effect or by providing the opportunity for creating a materials series with varying transition temperatures.