A new approach to prepare spherical La–Fe–Si–Co magnetocaloric refrigerant particles

The drop-tube solidification technique has been employed as a novel approach to prepare spherical LaFe11Co0.8Si1.2 magnetocaloric particles, which have been shown to be highly suitable for active magnetic regenerator systems. The rapidly solidified particles have an average value of the size distribution of about 300 μm, a perfectly spherical shape and are essentially void free. Only a very brief annealing at 1373 K for 1 h was required to obtain the La(Fe,Si)13 phase. A large magnetic entropy change of 15 J kg−1 K−1 caused by a field change of 5 T was observed around room temperature for annealed spheres.