Influence of Al substitution on magnetocaloric effect of Pr2Fe17 xAlx

Abstract The structural and magnetic properties of the Pr 2 Fe 17− x Al x ( x  = 0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1) compounds synthesized by arc-melting were investigated. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) coupled with the Rietveld analysis indicate that all samples are single phase with the rhombohedral Th 2 Zn 17 type structure. Moreover, it reveals a 6 c preferential occupation for the substituting element Al atoms in R 3 ¯ m . The unit cell volume increases slightly with increasing aluminum content while the c / a ratio remains constant. The study of magnetic properties reveals that Curie temperature increases with the Al content. The magnetic entropy change Δ S M was estimated from isothermal magnetization curves and it decreases with the increase of Al content from 5.5 J kg −1  K −1 ( x  = 0) to 4.2 J kg −1  K −1 ( x  = 1) at μ 0 H = 5 T . The saturation magnetization M s , the magnetocaloric effect (MCE) of the compounds and the relative cooling power (RCP) were determined by measuring their magnetic properties.