The effect of plastic deformation on magnetic and magnetocaloric properties of Gd-B alloys

We report on the magnetocaloric effect in Gd100-xBx (x = 0, 10, 15) cold rolled ribbons. A moderate entropy change ΔS = 5 J/kg·K and adiabatic change of ΔT = 4.8 K were observed for the as-cast materials in an external magnetic field of 3 T which is less by 20% in comparison with the pure gadolinium metal. It was found that a significant (up to 70%) depression of magnetization and magnetocaloric properties developed in the course of plastic deformation can completely be restored by means of a high temperature heat treatment. It is concluded that cold rolling is one promising technique for producing foil shaped magnetocaloric materials suitable for designing heat exchangers of magnetic cooling devices.