Study on the magnetocaloric of alloy Gd3Al2-xGax

A series of Gd3Al2-xGax alloys over a composition range (x = 0, 0.1, 0.3, 0 .5) were prepared from. high purity Gd, Al, and Ga by are melting under pur ified argon atmosphere on a water-cooled copper crucible, then annealed in vacuum at 1073 or 1173 K for 36 h. The X-ray diffraction pattern indicated that these alloys were single phase of Zr3Al2-type structure. Magnetization isotherms at different temperatures of these alloys were measured between 180 and 300 K under the magnetic field up to 1.12 x 10(6) A/m using vibrati ng sample magnetometer. We found that magnetic entropy change of Gd3Al2-xGa x (x = 0.1, 0.3, 0.5) was larger than that of Gd3Al2, and the sigma(s) of G d3Al2-xGax (x = 0.1, 0.3) were larger than that of Gd3Al2. The maximum magn etic entropy change(about 3.0 J/kgK) of Gd3Al2-xGax (x = 0.1) was observed at 280 K under a magnetic field of 1.12 x 10(6) A/m.