Magnetocaloric properties of phenolic resin bonded La(Fe,Si)13-based plates and its use in a hybrid magnetic refrigerator

Abstract

We present a simple hot press-based method for processing La(Fe,Si)13-based compounds consisting of La–Fe–Co–Si–C particles and phenolic resin. The magnetic entropy change ΔS per unit mass for the LaFe10.87Co0.63Si1.5C0.2/phenolic resin compounds have nearly the same magnitude with the base materials. With the content of phenolic resin of 5.0 wt%, the compound conductivity is 3.13 W⋅m−1⋅K−1. In order to measure the cooling performance of La(Fe,Si)13-based compounds, the La(Fe11.6–x Co x )Si1.4C0.15 (x = 0.60, 0.65, 0.75, 0.80, 0.85)/phenolic resin compounds were pressed into thin plates and tested in a hybrid refrigerator that combines the active magnetic refrigeration effect with the Stirling cycle refrigeration effect. The test results showed that a maximum cooling power of 41 W was achieved over a temperature span of 30 K.