Heat recycling with magnetocaloric materials for sustainable energy conversion

Solid-state magnetocaloric effects (MCEs) induced by external magnetic fields offer a promising pathway toward sustainable energy conversion technologies, utilizing field-driven temperature changes for efficient solid-state cooling and heating. This review examines magnetocaloric materials (MCMs) in the context of sustainable heat recycling, summarizing representative material systems and key advances from the past decade. The discussion is organized around a materials–applications–mechanism framework to provide a coherent perspective. Finally, we outline existing challenges and future opportunities in the field. Deeper mechanistic insight, combined with advances in manufacturing and the integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning, is expected to accelerate the development of magnetocaloric energy conversion technologies toward practical implementation. Such synergistic progress will accelerate the deployment of these technologies for carbon-neutral heat recycling. © 2026 Chinese Physical Society and IOP Publishing Ltd. All rights, including for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies, are reserved. This article is available under the terms of the IOP-Standard License.