Magnetocaloric effect in heat-treated Fe90-xYxZr10 (x = 0, 5, 10) alloys

The magnetocaloric effect for as-quenched and heat-treated Fe90-xYxZr10 (x = 0, 5, 10) alloys has been measured and compared to that for Fe91-xYxZr9 (x = 0, 5, 8) alloys. Samples were prepared by single roller melt spinning, and the alloys were annealed for one hour at 500 .deg. C. A temperature dependence of the entropy variation ΔSM was found in the vicinity of the Curie temperature. The results show that heat-treated Fe90-xYxZr10 alloys have a larger magnetocaloric effect than asquenched alloys. The value was 1.47 J/kg K for the annealed Fe85Y5Zr10 alloy and 0.90 at 285 K for the as-quenched Fe85Y5Zr10 alloy. In a previous work, the magnetic entropy change reached a higher value of about 1.22 J/kg K for the Fe86Y5Zr9 sample annealed at 500 .deg. C while it was about 0.89 J/kg K at 284 K for the as-quenched alloy. These results indicate that the present alloys may be candidates for working materials for magnetic refrigeration, with proper annealing and tuning of the element concentration.