The magnetocaloric effect, i.e. the reversible temperature change of a magnetic material upon application/removal of a magnetic field, is a topic of current scientific interest due to its potential application for magnetic refrigeration and thermomagnetic energy conversion. These applications are environmental friendly due to the absence of ozone-depleting or green house effect gas, combined with the possibility of achieving increased energy efficiency.

One of the limiting factors for the commercialization of magnetic refrigerators is connected to the current limitations of magnetocaloric materials: In order to achieve large (giant) magnetic entropy change and adiabatic temperature change, materials should exhibit a first order phase transition. However, this comes with the price of thermal hysteresis, coexistence of phases and limited time response of the transformation kinetics. The optimization of magnetocaloric materials passes through a combination of efforts that include development of experimental techniques, modeling of materials’ properties, prediction of potentially useful alloys and compounds and synthesis of the same.

Characterization techniques should be improved in order to allow us to increase the throughput of reliable results by a) decreasing the amount of sample required to perform measurements, b) increase the speed of the characterization technique, or c) reduce the temperature and field spans needed for obtaining valid results. In addition, thermal hysteresis, dynamic response and transformation kinetics should be properly characterized and understood in order to be able to improve the applicability of materials under real operating conditions. The search for new magnetocaloric compositions require the use of both ab-initio and phenomenological models in order to predict potential candidates with a large magnetocaloric response for the synthesis of the materials. Finally, magnetocaloric alloys and compounds should avoid, as much as possible, critical or strategic materials, so that the technologies based on this effect are sustainable.

This symposium will encompass all these aspects of magnetocaloric research, combining the state of the art of theory and experiment, ranging from materials design to device implementation, passing through issues related to sustainability. Closely related effects, like barocaloric, elastocaloric and electrocaloric materials will also be considered.