Glycine-assisted combustion synthesis and magnetocaloric properties of polycrystalline La0.8Ca0.2MnO3

A facile and rapid glycine-assisted combustion method was developed to synthesize polycrystalline La 0.8 Ca 0.2 MnO 3 (LCMO) powder by dissolving lanthanum nitrate, calcium nitrate, manganese nitrate (oxidant) and glycine (fuel) as the starting materials and water as solvent and then heating the resulting solution on a heating plate. The X-ray diffraction and FTIR analyses confirmed the orthorhombic crystal structure, and a morphological study showed the polycrystalline form of the LCMO powder. The calculated lattice constants a = 5.46, b = 7.73, and c = 5.49 Å agreed well with the standard values. The magnetic measurements showed a paramagnetic behavior of LCMO at room temperature. The maximum change in entropy observed for the LCMO sample was −1.95 J/kgK at an applied magnetic field of 2 T at the Curie temperature of 165 K.