High-performance solid-state cooling materials: Balancing magnetocaloric and non-magnetic properties in dual phase La-Fe-Si

La(Fe,Si)(13)H-based materials are considered to be one of the most promising room-temperature magnetic refrigerants. The intrinsic brittleness and relatively low thermal conductivity in La-Fe-Si-H alloys, however, have severely hindered its preparation, shaping and application. To solve this long-standing problem, in this work we propose a novel approach to fabricate stable La-Fe-Si-H blocks and plates by adding extra alpha-Fe as a reinforcing phase to enhance mechanical integrity. Much better bending strength compared to that in the stoichiometric composition has been observed in our dual phase La-Fe-Si-H magnetic refrigerants. Such novel Fe-rich plates can be exposed to 10(5) magnetic field cycles without losing mechanical integrity. In addition, a large and reproducible Delta T-ad of 5.4 K in 1.93 T and a thermal conductivity of 6 W/mK at room temperature have been obtained. (C) 2016 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.