Materials Challenges for High Performance Magnetocaloric Refrigeration Devices

Magnetocaloric materials with a Curie temperature near room temperature have attracted significant interest for some time due to their possible application for high-efficiency refrigeration devices. This review focuses on a number of key issues of relevance for the characterization, performance and implementation of such materials in actual devices. The phenomenology and fundamental thermodynamics of magnetocaloric materials is discussed, as well as the hysteresis behavior often found in first-order materials. A number of theoretical and experimental approaches and their implications are reviewed. The question of how to evaluate the suitability of a given material for use in a magnetocaloric device is covered in some detail, including a critical assessment of a number of common performance metrics. Of particular interest is which non-magnetocaloric properties need to be considered in this connection. An overview of several important materials classes is given before considering the performance of materials in actual devices. Finally, an outlook on further developments is presented.