CHARACTERISTICS IN MAGNETOCALORIC EFFECT AND MAGNETIC ENTROPY OF NANOMETER BINARY GADOLINIUM ALLOYS

Abstract

Investigations on magnetocaloric effect and magnetic entropy,Curie temperature and specific heat of nanometer binary gadolinium alloys such as Gd-Y,Gd-Tb and Gd-Zn have been carried out under the conditions of a low magnetic-field intensity(1T) and a temperature range within 233～313K. Both Curie temperature and specific heat of the prepared nanometer alloys,compared with the bulk materials,show obvious decrease and increase respectively. The nanometer alloy Gd-Y demonstrates an enhanced magnetocaloric effect and magnetic entropy over the same bulk material, which is of importance on researching and developing new materials for magnetic refrigeration. Adiscussion concerning the influence of nanometer structure on magnetic and heat properties mentioned above is given in detail.