Magnetocaloric effect (MCE) is a phenomenon where the application and removal of a magnetic field causes certain materials to get warmer and cooler, respectively.This effect normally occurs near its Curie temperature where the application of field makes the material to warm up and cools up when the field is removed.
Magnetocaloric effect is utilized in magnetic refrigeration, which is an environmentally friendly technology to obtain cooling efficiency nearly 60 % compared to the conventional gas-compression refrigerators (40 %). However high magnetic fields of above 2 T are required.
Some of the magnetocaloric materials and their properties are listed below:
| Material | TC | Entropy change (J/kg/K) at 2 T | Temperature change (K) at 2 T |
| Gd |
293 K |
5 | 5.8 |
| Gd5Ge2Si2 | 272 K | 27 | 6.6 |
| MnFePxAs1-x | 200-350 K | 15-32 | 2-6 |
