Structural and cryogenic magnetic properties of the RE2MoO6 (RE = Er and Ho) compounds

The rare earth (RE) based magnetic materials with large low temperature magnetocaloric effect (MCE) have attracted much research interest due to their potential application for the environment-friendly magnetic refrigeration (MR) technology. Herein, a systematic investigation on the crystal structure, micro morphology together with the low temperature magnetic properties and MCE performances have been conducted on the RE2MoO6 (RE = Er and Ho) compounds. Both compounds crystallize in monoclinic structure and exhibit large reversible low temperature MCE. The maximum magnetic entropy changes (-Delta SmaxM) at magnetic field change (Delta H) of 0-5 T reach 15.3 and 15.8 J kg-1 K-1 for Er2MoO6 and Ho2MoO6, respectively. The corresponding relative cooling power/refrigeration capacity (RCP/RC) values are 197.4/149.7 and 286.0/222.3 J/kg. These obtained MCE parameters for present RE2MoO6 compounds are close to those of reported RE based MCE ma-terials, which make them of potential for low temperature MR application.