Determination of the Magnetic Entropy Change from Magnetic Measurements: the Importance of the Measurement Protocol

The search for energy-efficient technologies for developing new refrigerator appliances has made the magnetocaloric effect a field of current scientific interest.1 The number of scientific publications on this topic is increasing exponentially in the recent years (Figure 1), which is proof of the high expectations that the scientific community is depositing on this field of research. Together with their increased energy efficiency, magnetic refrigerators are expected to have a more reduced environmental impact when compared with those based on the gas compression-expansion cycle, as they do not involve ozone-depleting or greenhouse effect related gases, and the lack of a large compressor in the refrigerator allows more reduced vibration and noise. Moreover, being a solid state refrigerator device, miniaturization will be possible, which brings a breadth of potential new applications like refrigeration of lab-on-a-chip reactors, for example.