Study of Magnetic and Magnetocaloric Behaviour of (1 - Y)La0.7Ca0.3MnO3/(Y)MnFe2O4, (1 - Y)La0.7Ca0.3MnO3/(Y)Ni0.9Zn0.1Fe2O4 Composites.

We report the structural, magnetic and magnetocaloric properties of (1 - Y)La0.7Ca0.3MnO3/ (Y)MnFe2O4 (LCMO/MFO) and (1 - Y)La0.7Ca0.3MnO3/(Y)Ni0.9Zn0.1Fe2O4 (LCMO/NZFO) composites. Polycrystalline LCMO/MFO samples were prepared using the conventional solid-state reaction technique. The results of X-ray diffraction indicates mainly LCMO phase without characteristic lines of the MFO and NZFO phase. The magnetic study has revealed that the Curie temperature was influenced by the concentration of MFO and NZFO phases. A large magnetic entropy change has been observed for La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 compound. The value of the maximum magnetic entropy change was found to decrease in the composites samples with increasing the concentration of the MFO and NZFO phases. This investigation suggests that LCMO/MFO and LCMO/NZFO types of composites can give a new kind of refrigeration candidates, which can easily provide the tunable magnetocaloric effect.