TY - JOUR A1 - Dzekan, D. A1 - Waske, Anja A1 - Nielsch, K. A1 - Fähler, S. T1 - Efficient and affordable thermomagnetic materials for harvesting low grade waste heat N2 - Industrial processes release substantial quantities of waste heat, which can be harvested to generate electricity. At present, the conversion of low grade waste heat to electricity relies solely on thermoelectric materials, but such materials are expensive and have low thermodynamic efficiencies. Although thermomagnetic materials may offer a promising alternative, their performance remains to be evaluated, thereby hindering their real-world application. Here, the efficiency and cost effectiveness of thermomagnetic materials are evaluated for the usage in motors, oscillators, and generators for converting waste heat to electricity. The analysis reveals that up to temperature differences of several 10 K, the best thermomagnetic materials have the potential to compete with thermoelectric materials. Importantly, it is found that the price per watt of some thermomagnetic materials is much lower compared to that of present-day thermoelectrics, which can become competitive with conventional power plants. This materials library enables the selection of the best available thermomagnetic materials for harvesting waste heat and gives guidelines for their future development. KW - Waste heat conversion KW - Magnetic materials KW - Thermomagnetic generator PY - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-541493 VL - 9 SP - 1 EP - 9 PB - AIP Publishing CY - Melville, USA AN - OPUS4-54149 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Fareed, Adnan A1 - Rosalie, Julian M. A1 - Kumar, Sourabh A1 - Kar, S. A1 - Hickel, Tilmann A1 - Fähler, S. A1 - Maaß, Robert T1 - Constrained incipient phase transformation in Ni-Mn-Ga films: A small-scale design challenge N2 - Ni-Mn-Ga shape-memory alloys are promising candidates for large strain actuation and magnetocaloric cooling devices. In view of potential small-scale applications, we probe here nanomechanically the stress-induced austenite–martensite transition in single crystalline austenitic thin films as a function of temperature. In 0.5 μm thin films, a marked incipient phase transformation to martensite is observed during nanoindentation, leaving behind pockets of residual martensite after unloading. These nanomechanical instabilities occur irrespective of deformation rate and temperature, are Weibull distributed, and reveal large spatial variations in transformation stress. In contrast, at a larger film thickness of 2 μm fully reversible transformations occur, and mechanical loading remains entirely smooth. Ab-initio simulations demonstrate how an in-plane constraint can considerably increase the martensitic transformation stress, explaining the thickness-dependent nanomechanical behavior. These findings for a shape-memory Heusler alloy give insights into how reduced dimensions and constraints can lead to unexpectedly large transformation stresses that need to be considered in small-scale actuation design. KW - Shape-memory alloys KW - Nanoindentation KW - Incipient plasticity KW - NiMaGa PY - 2023 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-581422 VL - 233 SP - 1 EP - 8 PB - Elsevier B.V. AN - OPUS4-58142 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -