Elastocaloric-like effect in strain-mediated Mn3SnC/PZT magnetoelectric hetero-composite for solid-state refrigeration

Concerning the part of global warming caused by conventional refrigerant gasses, past decades of research on solid-state cooling technologies based on caloric effects present an attractive alternative with zero-greenhouse gas emission and higher operating efficiency. However, the search for materials with large caloric effects near room temperature has become a challenge in modern material physics. Mn-based antiperovskite compounds are favorable caloric materials which generate a reversible enthalpy change by applying an external field. We report a novel approach of piezo-enhanced elastocaloric-like effect on Mn3SnC for solid-state refrigeration application. In the as-designed Mn3SnC/PZT magnetoelectric hetero-composite, the reversible caloric effect of Mn3SnC was regulated by the electric field-induced strain in the PZT piezoelectricity layer without any external magnetic field. In addition, we proposed an experimental setup for the direct adiabatic temperature change measurement of the caloric effect. The adiabatic temperature change is as high as ∼ 0.57 K at 280 K under an electric field of 0.8 kV/cm, which is approximately 2 factors larger than that of the magnetocaloric effect value of Mn3SnC under 3 T. By adopting the first-principles theory, we estimated the entropy change is approximately 2.6 J Kg−1 K−1 at 280 K which is close to the previous reports. This work demonstrates a novel approach to effectively enhance reversible caloric effects in first-order phase transition materials via electric fields.