Eur. Phys. J. B (2018) 91: 261
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2018-80721-9

Regular Article

Large successive magnetocaloric effects around room temperature in Ni₅₀Mn₃₄In₁₅Al alloy

¹ Hubei Collaborative Innovation Center for Advanced Organic Chemical Materials, Hubei Key Laboratory of Ferro & Piezoelectric Materials and Devices, Faculty of Physics and Electronic Science, Hubei University, Wuhan 430062, P.R. China
² Wuhan National High Magnetic Field Center, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, P.R. China

^a e-mail: wangrl@hubu.edu.cn
^b e-mail: cpyang@hubu.edu.cn

Received: 22 December 2017
Received in final form: 2 August 2018
Published online: 22 October 2018

Abstract

Two successive magnetocaloric effects consisting of inverse magnetocaloric effect around martensitic transition and negative magnetocaloric effect around magnetic transition of austenitic phase have been observed in Ni₅₀Mn₃₄In₁₅Al alloy. Large inverse magnetic entropy change ΔS_m ( ~ 21.3 J kg⁻¹ K⁻¹), small thermal and magnetic hysteresis of martensitic transition give rise of large net refrigerant capacity ( ~ 152.3 J kg⁻¹) under a magnetic field of 50 kOe, which is comparable with that ( ~ 157.9 J kg⁻¹) of second-order transition. The large combined magnetocaloric effects make the Ni₅₀Mn₃₄In₁₅Al alloy as a promising candidate material for room temperature magnetic refrigeration.