Excellent mechanical properties and large magnetocaloric effect of spark plasma sintered Ni-Mn-In-Co alloy

Abstract The Ni43.75Mn37.5In12.5Co6.25 alloy was obtained by using the spark plasma sintering (SPS) technique. The martensitic transformation, magnetic and mechanical properties of the SPS alloy were investigated. Key findings demonstrate that the martensitic transformation temperature of this alloy is about 10 K lower than that of the as-cast one. Both SPS and as-cast alloys show a 7 layered modulated martensite (7M) at room temperature. The compressive fracture strength and strain of the SPS alloy increase by 176.92% and 33.33% compared with the as-cast alloy, achieving 1440 MPa and 14%, respectively. The maximum magnetic entropy change ΔSm is 17.1 J kg-1 K-1 for the SPS alloy at the magnetic field of 5 T.