Optimization of the refrigerant capacity in multiphase magnetocaloric materials

The refrigerant capacity (RC) of magnetocaloric materials can be enhanced using multiphase materials or composites, which expand the temperature range over which a significant magnetic entropy change can be obtained. Numerical simulations show that by controlling the parameters of the composite (the fraction of the different phases and their Curie temperatures) improvements of RC of ∼83% are possible. The maximum applied field plays a crucial, nonmonotonic, role in the optimization. As a proof of concept, it is shown that the combination of two Fe88−2xCoxNixZr7B4Cu1 alloys produces an enhancement in RC of ∼37%, making it ∼92% larger than that of Gd5Si2Ge1.9Fe0.