Magneto-caloric effect in the pseudo-binary intermetallic YPrFe17 compound.

We have synthesized the intermetallic YPrFe17 compound by arc-melting. X-ray and neutron powder diffraction show that the crystal structure is rhombohedral with R<(3)over bar $>m space group (Th2Zn17-type). The investigated compound exhibits a broad isothermal magnetic entropy change Delta S-M(T) associated with the ferro-to-paramagnetic phase transition (T-C approximate to 290 K). The vertical bar Delta S-M vertical bar (approximate to 2.3 J kg(-1) K-1) and the relative cooling power (approximate to 100 J kg(-1)) have been calculated for applied magnetic field changes up to 1.5T. A single master curve for Delta S-M under different values of the magnetic field change can be obtained by a rescaling of the temperature axis. The results are compared and discussed in terms of the magneto-caloric effect in the isostructural R2Fe17 (R= Y, Pr and Nd) binary intermetallic alloys. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.