Exploring the magnetic and magnetocaloric properties of PLA composite filaments of Mn0.5Fe0.5Ni0.95Cr0.05Si0.95Al0.05 for additive manufacturing

We performed an experimental study on the structural and magnetocaloric properties of PLA-based composite filaments of Mn0.5Fe0.5Ni0.95Cr0.05Si0.95Al0.05. X-ray diffraction patterns confirmed that the as-cast powder and the extruded filament composites exhibited the mixed hexagonal and orthorhombic crystal structures at room temperature. The dc magnetization data showed that all samples exhibited the first-order magnetic phase transition near room temperature. The entropy changes evaluated from the isothermal magnetization data peaked at 301 K for the powder sample and 322 K for the filament with 57 wt. % powder during warming. For a field change of 5 T, peak entropy changes of −5.5 J kg−1 K−1 and −1.2 J kg−1 K−1 were observed for powder and filament, respectively. The results suggested that PLA-composite additive manufacturing may be a promising technique for producing magnetocaloric coolants from brittle materials.