Room Temperature Magnetocaloric effect in CrTe1-xSbx Alloys

Abstract We investigate the magnetocaloric effect (MCE), relative cooling power (RCP) and crystalline structure in Sb substituted CrTe1-xSbx (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.2) alloy. The Rietveld refinement of the XRD pattern of CrTe1-xSbx showed the emerging of pure hexagonal NiAs structure with P63/mmc (194) space group with increasing Sb substitution. We detect a slight increase in the basal plane a-lattice parameter, with a much larger reduction in the c-axis. Magnetic isotherms were measured in the temperature range of 50-400K. The results revealed an increase in the maximum entropy change |SM(T,H)| with Sb-substitutions in the temperature range (∼285-325K). Moreover, The RCP values increased by about 33% with 20% Sb substitutions. These findings suggest that CrTe1-xSbx alloys can be used in room temperature magnetic cooling at fraction of the coast of pure Gd element the porotype magnetic material for magnetic refrigeration.