6. Conclusion

Magnetic refrigeration is now recognized as an efficient technique, and considered economically and industrially viable. Its forthcoming application is as much a result of the pressure of the dual energy and environmental crisis, as it is of the results recently achieved, and expected in the near future, in materials science and systems engineering.

With the few examples given here, magnetocaloric materials thus appear to stem from quite distinct chemical and structural families, bringing into play different parameters and involving very diverse transformations and physical phenomena. In addition to the application of the most promising compositions, new magnetocaloric materials need to be researched and implemented, with even greater performance in terms of entropy variation and covered temperature range, combining magnetic transition, magnetovolumic effect and/or...