In fact, magnets are able to cool other materials. This technology is called "Magnetic refrigeration".
Many of you may be wondering how to do it. The principle goes for air conditioners and rubber balloons. Watch it to melt your question away.
Some researchers in NIMS are doing research on magnetic refrigeration in order to contribute to the hydrogen economy in the near future with the technology for making, storing and transporting liquid hydrogen.
FYI: In this video, we cooled a piece of gadolinium metal which shows ferromagnetism at room temperature, as iron, cobalt and nickel does. The ferromagnetism of gadolinium disappears when it is heated a little bit. This property is useful to realize magnetic refrigeration.
4 окт 2024