Review of the magnetocaloric effect in manganite materials

A thorough understanding of the magnetocaloric properties of existing magnetic refrigerant materials has been an important issue in magnetic refrigeration technology. This paper reviews a new class of inagnetocaloric material, that is, the ferromagnetic perovskite manganites (R1-xMxMnO3, where R = La, Nd, Pr and M = Ca, Sr, Ba, etc.). The nature of these materials with respect to their inagnetocaloric properties has been analyzed and discussed systematically. A comparison of the magnetocaloric effect of the manganites with other materials is given. The potential manganites are nominated for a variety of large- and small-scale magnetic refrigeration applications in the temperature range of 100-375 K. It is believed that the manganite materials with the superior magnetocaloric properties in addition to cheap materials-processing cost will be the option of future magnetic refrigeration technology. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.