Development of magnetocaloric materials in room temperature magnetic refrigeration application in recent six years

Some magnetocaloric materials were used successfully in magnetic refrigeration application and became one of the critical parts of magnetic refrigeration technology whose delightful progresses were made worldwide in the past 30 years. At the same time, the research on giant magnetocaloric materials will accelerate the development of room temperature magnetic refrigeration. In this paper, the new theoretical and experimental investigations on magnetic materials in room temperature application were described, including Gd and its binary and ternary intermetallic compounds, Mn-based compounds, La(Fe_13−x M _x )-based compounds and manganites. Based on the analysis of hysteresis, corrosion, cost and heat process, the comparison between different families of magnetic materials was discussed. Further research of room temperature magnetic refrigerant was suggested. Foundation item: Project(50876082) supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China; Project (IRT0746) supported by the Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University