Large reversible magnetocaloric effect in a Ni-Co-Mn-In magnetic shape memory alloy

Reversibility of the magnetocaloric effect in materials with first-order magnetostructural transformation is of vital significance for practical magnetic refrigeration applications. Here, we report a large reversible magnetocaloric effect in a Ni49.8Co1.2Mn33.5In15.5 magnetic shape memory alloy. A large reversible magnetic entropy change of 14.6 J/(kg K) and a broad operating temperature window of 18 K under 5 T were simultaneously achieved, correlated with the low thermal hysteresis (∼8 K) and large magnetic-field-induced shift of transformation temperatures (4.9 K/T) that lead to a narrow magnetic hysteresis (1.1 T) and small average magnetic hysteresis loss (48.4 J/kg under 5 T) as well. Furthermore, a large reversible effective refrigeration capacity (76.6 J/kg under 5 T) was obtained, as a result of the large reversible magnetic entropy change, broad operating temperature window, and small magnetic hysteresis loss. The large reversible magnetic entropy change and large reversible effective refrigeration capacity are important for improving the magnetocaloric performance, and the small magnetic hysteresis loss is beneficial to reducing energy dissipation during magnetic field cycle in potential applications.