In this work, we studied the role of Ba and Sr substitutions on the structural, morphological, magnetic, and magnetocaloric properties of the La \( _{0.7} \) Ca \( _{0.3} \) MnO \( _3 \) manganite. The La \( _{0.7} \) Ca \( _{0.2} \) Ba \( _{0.1} \) MnO \( _{3} \) and La \( _{0.7} \) Ca \( _{0.2} \) Sr \( _{0.1} \) MnO \( _{3} \) manganites were synthetized using the combustion method. FT-IR, X-ray diffraction, and magnetization measurements were performed to investigate the crystallographic structure and the magnetocaloric properties. The samples exhibit a ferromagnetic behavior, and the ferromagnetic-paramagnetic transition occurs around the room temperature. The critical temperatures are 298.5 K and 308.7 K for the LCBM and LCSM samples, respectively. The maxima values of magnetic entropy at a field of 3T are 1.64 J/Kg K and 2.08 J/Kg K for the LCBM and LCSM samples. The LCSM manganite shows a better magnetocaloric performance, which could be related to an enhancement of the double exchange interaction due to the shorter average bond length between Mn and O ions for this sample. These results are in agreement with those reported in the literature, highlighting that the solution combustion synthesis route presents potential advantages, such as a faster and simpler route for obtaining manganites.
