Synthesis and Magnetocaloric Effect of HoN Particles as Magnetic Refrigerant in Cryogenic Temperature by Microwave-Assisted Sol-Gel Method

Rare-earth (RE) mono-nitrides can be used as magnetocaloric materials for the magnetic refrigerant for liquefying hydrogen. In this study, holmium nitride (HoN) particles were prepared by sol-gel method with microwave irradiation. HoN particles were successfully synthesized by 2-step heat treatment in N-2 atmosphere form gel-type intermediate by microwave irradiation. X-ray diffraction patterns of the synthesized HoN particles exhibited the six sharp peaks in good agreement with each plane of crystallographic structure of HoN. Especially, the synthesized HoN particles reveal a high magnetic entropy change (Delta S-m) of 36.6 J/kgK in applied field of 5T at 14.2 K which is comparable with those of rare earth mono-nitrides by carbothermic reduction method or plasma arc discharge technique.