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Formation of NaZn13-type phase in LaFe11.5S1.5 alloy during solidification process

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Abstract

Low-cost La(FexSi1−x)13 alloys exhibiting the large magnetocaloric effect (MCE) are one of the most promising magnetic refrigerant candidates for room temperature magnetic refrigeration. The NaZn13-type phase (hereinafter 1:13 phase) is believed to play a key role in the MCE of these alloys. While the formation of the 1:13 phase directly from the melt upon cooling was challenging, in this paper we demonstrate that the 1:13 phase can be formed directly during solidification. We found that three kinds of solidification microstructure were formed because a competitive nucleation occurred between the 1:13 and α-(Fe,Si) phase during the solidification of LaFe11.5Si1.5 alloy. In case of a high cooling speed, a large amount of NaZn13–type phase with equiaxed grains and a small amount of α-(Fe,Si) phase were formed because of a dominant nucleation rate of 1:13 phase. When the cooling rate was small, a large number of α-(Fe,Si) phase with dendrites were formed because the nucleation rate of α-(Fe,Si) phase is larger than that of the 1:13 phase. These results revealed that nucleation rates of phases is very important to the composition formation and microstructure of LaFe11.5Si1.5 alloys.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the Instrumental Analysis & Research Center, Shanghai University. This work was financially supported by Shanghai Education Commission Project (Grant No. 12ZZ085) and Shanghai Natural Science Foundation (13ZR1415300).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory for Microstructures of Shanghai University, 99 Shangda Road, BaoShan District, Shanghai, 200444, China

    Xueling Hou, Chunyu Liu, Yun Xue & Hui Xu

  2. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai University, 149 Yangchang Road, Zhabei District, Shanghai, 200072, China

    Xueling Hou, Chunyu Liu, Yun Xue & Hui Xu

  3. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai University Of Engineering Science, 333 Longteng Road, Songjiang District, Shanghai, 201620, China

    Ning Han & Chunwei Ma

  4. Department of Physics, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, 33620, USA

    M.H. Phan

Authors
  1. Xueling Hou
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  2. Chunyu Liu
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  3. Yun Xue
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  4. Ning Han
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  5. Hui Xu
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  6. Chunwei Ma
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  7. M.H. Phan
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Hou, X., Liu, C., Xue, Y. et al. Formation of NaZn13-type phase in LaFe11.5S1.5 alloy during solidification process. MRS Online Proceedings Library 1708, 75–82 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1557/opl.2014.696

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/opl.2014.696

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