Enhancement of Refrigeration Capacity and Table-Like Magnetocaloric Effect in LaFe10.7Co0.8Si1.5/La0.6Pr0.4Fe10.7Co0.8Si1.5 Composite

In this work, we have investigated the magnetocaloric effect (MCE) in a two-phase composite system (LaFeCoSi) (1-x) /(LaPrFeCoSi) (x) based on LaFe (10.7) Co Si-0.8 (1.5) and La Pr-0.6 Fe-0.4 Co-10.7 Si-0.8 (1.5) with Curie temperature values 275 and 295 K, respectively. The temperature dependence of the isothermal magnetic entropy change, Delta S(T), has been calculated for the biphasic system with 0 < x < 1. The optimum MCE properties, i.e., a Delta S(T) curve with table-like shape, has been found in the temperature interval of 271-287 K for the composite with x = 0.45 at 5 T. The |Delta S (M)| of the composite come close to a constant value of 9.78 J/(kg K) in a field change of 0-5 T in a wide temperature span over 16 K resulting in large refrigerant capacity value of similar to 534.45 J/kg. This composite can be used as the working material in the Ericsson cycle magnetic regenerative refrigerator. Our findings constitute a good starting point to stimulate the search for new composites with enhanced MCE properties near room temperature.