Rotating magnetocaloric effect in sintered La(Fe,Mn,Si)13H z plates

This work characterizes the conventional and rotating magnetocaloric effect (RMCE) present in a 0.27 mm-thin plate of hydrogenated La(Fe,Mn,Si). The high aspect ratio (∼50) of the thin plate leads to an anisotropic magnetocaloric effect (MCE), dependent on the relative orientation of the external magnetic field, and an RMCE when the external field is rotated. We find a maximum rotating adiabatic temperature change (ΔTadrot) of 1.17 K upon rotation of a 1 T magnetic field, and 1.12 K with 0.6 T—a reduction of only 4% for a 40% reduction in field strength. Magnetostatic computations revealed a considerable rotating entropy change (ΔSisorot), comparable to the MCE of Gd for similar fields, reaching 3.97 J K−1 kg−1 for 1 T and 3.68 J K−1 kg−1 for 0.6 T (7% reduction), highlighting La-Fe-Mn-Si alloys as high potential candidates for a magnetic refrigerator based on the RMCE utilizing low magnetic fields.