Novel Active Transient Cooling Systems

Under this grant, we have conducted detailed studies of magnetocaloric nanomaterials for solid state cooling applications. Such materials are of great current interest, in fact, the current AFOSR MURI Topic #20 is exclusively devoted to solid state cooling. Our work on synthesis, characterization and property evaluation of magnetocaloric materials is summarized. Magnetic refrigeration systems offer good potential to reduce (1) global energy consumption and (2) use of ozone-depleting compounds, greenhouse cases and hazardous chemicals. The experimental investigation of magnetocaloric effects and structural properties of Fe80-xGdxCr8B12 (x = 0, 5, 8, 15) alloys has therefore been studied. Fe80Cr8B12 alloys exhibit good magnetocaloric properties near room temperature. Gd, which is well-known to exhibit good magnetocaloric effects in room temperature, was alloyed in Fe-Cr-B base alloys. The increase of Gd additions displaces the Curie temperature of the alloy to higher temperatures without significant depreciation of pk M S Δ .