Large enhancement of magnetocaloric effect induced by dual regulation effects of hydrostatic pressure in Mn0.94Fe0.06NiGe compound

MM'X (M,M' = transition metals, X = carbon or boron group elements) compounds could exhibit large magnetocaloric effect due to the magnetostructural transition, and the composition regulation has been widely studied to realize the magnetostructural transition. Moreover, the magnetostructural transition is also sensitive to the pressure. Herein, the effect of hydrostatic pressure on magnetostructural transformation and magnetocaloric effect has been investigated in Mn0.94Fe0.06 NiGe compound. Dual regulation effect of lowering structural transition temperature and strengthening ferromagnetic (FM) state of martensite is realized by applying hydrostatic pressure, which would greatly improve the magnetocaloric effect of Mn0.94Fe0.06NiGe compound. Moreover, the first-principles calculations have also been performed to discuss the origin of the regulation effect under hydrostatic pressure, and it indicates that the hydrostatic pressure can stabilize the hexagonal structure and decrease the structural transition temperature. The maximum isothermal entropy change increases by 109% from 4.3 J/(kg K) under 0 GPa to 9.0 J/(kg K) under 0.402 GPa for a magnetic field change of 0-3 T. This work proves that the hydrostatic pressure is an effective method to regulate the magnetostructural transition and enhance magnetocaloric effect in MM'X compounds. (C) 2022 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The editorial office of Journal of Materials Science & Technology.