Magnetism and Large Magnetocaloric Effect in GdNiBC Compound

Abstract

The magnetic and magnetocaloric properties in GdNiBC compound have been investigated by magnetization and heat capacity measurements. The compound exhibits a paramagnetic to ferromagnetic transition at $T_{C}\sim 15$ K. A large reversible magnetocaloric effect has been observed and accompanied by a second-order magnetic phase transition at $T_{C}$ . The maximum magnetic entropy change ( $-\Delta S_{M}^{\mathrm {max}}$ ) and adiabatic temperature change ( $\Delta T_{\mathrm {ad}}^{\mathrm {max}}$ ) are 24.9 J/kg K and 13 K, for a magnetic field change of 0–7 T, respectively. The corresponding relative cooling power is 801 J/kg.