Structural, magnetic, and magnetocaloric properties of intermetallic Fe2CoAl Heusler nanoalloy

2021 
Spherical nanoparticles (NPs) made of intermetallic Fe2CoAl (FCA) Heusler alloy are synthesized via the co-precipitation method and its structural, magnetic and magnetocaloric properties are explored, for the first time. The basic structural characterizations have revealed A2-disordered cubic Heusler structure. HRTEM with the SAED pattern analysis revealed the crystalline nature of the FCA-NPs with a mean diameter of around 14 nm. Field and temperature-dependent magnetization (M) study show that the NPs are soft ferromagnetic with a high saturation magnetization (Ms) and Curie temperature (Tc). We also observed that FCA-NPs do not follow the Slater Pauling (SP) rule possibly because of the disorder present in this system. We further investigate its phase transition and magnetocaloric properties. The peak value of magnetic entropy cange vs T curve at a magnetic field change of 20 kOe corresponds to about 2.65 J/Kg-K, and the observed value of refrigeration capacity (RCP) was as large as 44 J/Kg, suggesting a large heat conversion in the magnetic refrigeration cycle. To analyze the magnetic phase transition (MPT), the magnetization property is studied in detail. The Arrott plot and the nature of the universal curve accomplish that the ferromagnetic (FM) to paramagnetic (PM) phase transition in FCA-NPs is of second order. The present study suggests that the Fe2CoAl nanoscale system is proficient/useful/a good candidate for the spintronics application and opens a window for further research on full-Heusler based magnetic refrigerants.
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