Development and magnetocaloric properties of Ni(Co)-Mn-Sn printing ink

Abstract

Magnetocaloric (MC) cooling is a vast research field nowadays which needs continuing development of MC materials. Besides, technological approaches of the fabrication and design of MC materials to be applied as the heat exchangers require a reinforcement. Heusler-type metamagnetic shape memory alloys (MetaMSMAs) exhibiting a large MC effect near room temperature, owing to the magnetic field induced first-order transformation, have been shown to be promising candidates for magnetic refrigeration, and the possibility of their fabrication by 3D printing technologies was experimentally demonstrated in the literature. In the present work we have elaborated a route for the room-temperature fabrication of MC ink incorporating the polymer binder and Ni(Co)-Mn-Sn MetaMSMA powder obtained from the preliminary melt-spun ribbon with tuned MC properties. The ink is used to print 2D films which do not require a subsequent heat treatment. The field-induced adiabatic temperature measurements reveal that the screen-printed samples displayed the same inverse MC effect as the ribbon, evidencing that room-temperature ink printing technology of MC intermetallics, elaborated for the first time in the present work, is promising for 2D printing of cooling microdevices for MEMS, flexible electronics etc. • A magnetocaloric powder based on metamagnetic shape memory alloys for additive manufacturing has been successfully obtained. • A magnetocaloric ink was developed using a sustainable approach, avoiding any hazardous product during its preparation. • Magnetocaloric materials printed by screen-printing technique show performance similar to that observed in the bulk ribbon.