Tailored materials for magnetic refrigeration around room temperature

室温磁制冷即将取代传统的以压缩机为基础的制冷技术。后者的主要缺点是压缩机的资金成本高，效率低，并且使用爆炸性或消耗臭氧的气体。这项新技术将大大减少这些缺点，从而大大节省成本和能源。磁性冰箱使用固体制冷剂和常见的传热介质（水、水-酒精溶液、空气或氦气），不会对环境或其他造成任何危害。磁制冷的商业可行性的关键是找到合适的工作材料。磁性制冷剂必须满足许多标准，如在工作温度下具有较大的磁热效应，高导热性和低导电性，机械和化学稳定性，低毒性和材料成本。该项目旨在寻找优于Gd金属的金属制冷剂，目前几乎所有生产的原型设备都使用了Gd金属。因此，它可能会在实际应用（家用、汽车、食品工业、计算机…）中带来突破。

Room-temperature magnetic refrigeration is about to take over from the conventional compressor-based refrigeration technology. The main disadvantages of the latter are the high capital cost of the com- pressor, its low degree of efficiency, and the use of explosive or ozone depleting gases. The new technology will considerably reduce these drawbacks and thus lead to significant cost and energy savings. Magnetic refrigerators use solid refrigerants and common heat-transfer media (water, water-alcohol solution, air, or helium gas) that do not pose any environmental or other danger. Crucial for the commercial viability of magnetic refrigeration is finding the right working material. Mag- netic refrigerants are to fulfill a number of criteria, like a large magneto-caloric e®ect at operating tem- perature, high thermal and low electrical conductivity, mechanical and chemical stability, low toxicity and materials cost. The proposed project aims at searching for metallic refrigerants that would outperform Gd metal, which has been used in almost all prototype devices produced till now. Thus it may bring about a breakthrough in the practical application (household, automobile, food industry, computers ...) of magnetic refrigeration.