Magnetic properties and magnetocaloric effect in GdCo3B2 compound

The magnetic properties and magnetocaloric effect (MCE) in GdCo3B2 have been studied by the magnetization and heat capacity measurements. The compound undergoes a magnetic Co-Co ordering at similar to 160 K, and a second magnetic Gd-Gd ordering transition at 54K. A reversible magnetocaloric effect has been observed accompanied by a second-order phase transition at around Gd-Gd sublattice ordering temperature. The values of maximum magnetic entropy change (-Delta S-M(max)) reach 5.0 and 11.6J kg(-1) K-1 for the field change of 2 and 7T with no obvious hysteresis loss around 56K, respectively. The corresponding maximum adiabatic temperature changes (Delta T-ad(max)) are evaluated to be 2.8 and 6.4K. The magnetic transition and the origin of MCE in GdCo3B2 were discussed. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.