Magnetic properties and magnetocaloric effect in compound PrFe12B6

Magnetic properties and magnetocaloric effect of compoundPrFe₁₂B₆ are investigated. The coexistence of hard phasePrFe₁₂B₆ and soft phase α--Fe causes interestingphenomena on the curves for the temperature dependence ofmagnetization. PrFe₁₂B₆ experiences a first order phasetransition at the Curie temperature 200~K, accompanied by anobvious lattice contraction, which in turn results in a largemagnetic entropy change. The Maxwell relation fails to give thecorrect information about magnetic entropy change due to the firstorder phase transition nature. The large magnetic entropy changes ofPrFe_{12.3}B_{4.7} obtained from heat capacity method are 11.7and 16.2~J/kg.K for magnetic field changes of 0--2~T and 0--5~Trespectively.