Strong Magnetocaloric Coupling in Oxyorthosilicate with Dense Gd3+ Spins

• Published in: Inorganic chemistry Vol. 62; no. 13; pp. 5282 - 5291
• Main Authors: Yang, Ziyu W., Zhang, Jie, Lu, Dabiao, Zhang, Xiaoxiao, Zhao, Haoting, Cui, Hongzhi, Zeng, Yu-Jia, Long, Youwen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Chemical Society 03.04.2023
• ISSN: 0020-1669; 1520-510X
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.3c00421

Searching for working refrigerant materials is the key element in the design of magnetic cooling devices. Herein, we report on the thermodynamic and magnetocaloric parameters of an X 1 phase oxyorthosilicate, Gd2SiO5, by field-dependent static magnetization and specific heat measurements. An overall correlation strength of |J|S 2 ≈ 3.4 K is derived via the mean-field estimate, with antiferromagnetic correlations between the ferromagnetically coupled Gd–Gd layers. The magnetic entropy change −ΔS m is quite impressive, reaches 0.40 J K–1 cm–3 (58.5 J K–1 kg–1) at T = 2.7 K, with the largest adiabatic temperature change T ad = 23.2 K for a field change of 8.9 T. At T = 20 K, the lattice entropy S L is small enough compared to the magnetic entropy S m, S m/S L = 21.3, which warrants its potential in 2 −20 K cryocoolers with both the Stirling and Carnot cycles. Though with relatively large exchange interactions, the layered A-type spin arrangement ultimately enhances the magnetocaloric coupling, raising the possibilities of designing magnetic refrigerants with a high ratio of cooling capacity to volume.