The magnetocaloric effect in (Dy,Tb)Co2 alloys

Series of TbxDy1−xCo2 alloys (x = 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 0.7, 0.9) were prepared by arc-melting method. All the alloys were found to be the pure Laves phase, indicating the continuous solid (Dy,Tb)Co2 solution formed from DyCo2 and TbCo2. The maximal change of entropy ΔSM decreases from 8.86 to 2.64 J/kg K under magnetic field change of 0–1.5 T as Tb content increases from 0.1 to 0.9, due to the change of transition type from first-order to second-order. The results of Arrott plots and Inoue-Shimizu model confirmed the transition type changes from first-order to second-order occurs with Tb content x between 0.1 and 0.3.