https://dc.engconfintl.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1032&context=superalloys_ii

A critical review of high entropy alloys and related concepts

Microstructures and properties of high-entropy alloys

High-entropy alloys (HEAs) are alloys with five or more principal elements. Due to the distinct design concept, these alloys often exhibit unusual properties. Thus, there has been significant interest in these materials, leading to an emerging yet exciting new field. This paper briefly reviews some critical aspects of HEAs, including core effects, phases and crystal structures, mechanical properties, high-temperature properties, structural stabilities, and corrosion behaviors. Current challenges and important future directions are also pointed out.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/21663831.2014.912690

High-Entropy Alloys: A Critical Review

Alloying has long been used to confer desirable properties to materials. Typically, it involves the addition of relatively small amounts of secondary elements to a primary element. For the past decade and a half, however, a new alloying strategy that involves the combination of multiple principal elements in high concentrations to create new materials called high-entropy alloys has been in vogue. The multi-dimensional compositional space that can be tackled with this approach is practically limitless, and only tiny regions have been investigated so far. Nevertheless, a few high-entropy alloys have already been shown to possess exceptional properties, exceeding those of conventional alloys, and other outstanding high-entropy alloys are likely to be discovered in the future. Here, we review recent progress in understanding the salient features of high-entropy alloys. Model alloys whose behaviour has been carefully investigated are highlighted and their fundamental properties and underlying elementary mechanisms discussed. We also address the vast compositional space that remains to be explored and outline fruitful ways to identify regions within this space where high-entropy alloys with potentially interesting properties may be lurking. High-entropy alloys have greatly expanded the compositional space for alloy design. In this Review, the authors discuss model high-entropy alloys with interesting properties, the physical mechanisms responsible for their behaviour and fruitful ways to probe and discover new materials in the vast compositional space that remains to be explored.

High-entropy alloys

https://scholars.cityu.edu.hk/files/27103119/High_entropy_alloy_challenges_and_prospects.pdf

High-entropy alloy: challenges and prospects

Materials with low stacking fault energies have been long sought for their many desirable mechanical attributes. Although there have been many successful reports of low stacking fault alloys (for example Cu-based and Mg-based), many have lacked sufficient strength to be relevant for structural applications. The recent discovery and development of multicomponent equiatomic alloys (or high-entropy alloys) that form as simple solid solutions on ideal lattices has opened the door to investigate changes in stacking fault energy in materials that naturally exhibit high mechanical strength. We report in this article our efforts to determine the stacking fault energies of two- to five-component alloys. A range of methods that include ball milling, arc melting, and casting, is used to synthesize the alloys. The resulting structure of the alloys is determined from x-ray diffraction measurements. First-principles electronic structure calculations are employed to determine elastic constants, lattice parameters, and Poisson’s ratios for the same alloys. These values are then used in conjunction with x-ray diffraction measurements to quantify stacking fault energies as a function of the number of components in the equiatomic alloys. We show that the stacking fault energies decrease with the number of components. Nonequiatomic alloys are also explored as a means to further reduce stacking fault energy. We show that this strategy leads to a means to further reduce the stacking fault energy in this class of alloys.

Mechanical Properties and Stacking Fault Energies of NiFeCrCoMn High-Entropy Alloy

A low-density, nanocrystalline high-entropy alloy, Al20Li20Mg10Sc20Ti30 was produced by mechanical alloying. It formed a single-phase fcc structure during ball milling and transformed to single-phase hcp upon annealing. The alloy has an estimated strength-to-weight ratio that is significantly higher than other nanocrystalline alloys and is comparable to ceramics. High hardness is retained after annealing.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/21663831.2014.985855

A Novel Low-Density, High-Hardness, High-entropy Alloy with Close-packed Single-phase Nanocrystalline Structures

The evolution of the deformation substructure in a Ni-Co-Cr equiatomic solid solution alloy

CrCoNi alloy exhibits a remarkable combination of strength and plastic deformation, even superior to the CrMnFeCoNi high-entropy alloy. We connect the magnetic and mechanical properties of CrCoNi, via a magnetically tunable phase transformation. While both alloys crystallize as single-phase face-centered-cubic (fcc) solid solutions, we find a distinctly lower-energy phase in CrCoNi alloy with a hexagonal close-packed (hcp) structure. Comparing the magnetic configurations of CrCoNi with those of other equiatomic ternary derivatives of CrMnFeCoNi confirms that magnetically frustrated Mn eliminates the fcc-hcp energy difference. This highlights the unique combination of chemistry and magnetic properties in CrCoNi, leading to a fcc-hcp phase transformation that occurs only in this alloy, and is triggered by dislocation slip and interaction with internal boundaries. This phase transformation sets CrCoNi apart from the parent quinary, and its other equiatomic ternary derivatives, and provides a new way for increasing strength without compromising plastic deformation.

/pdf/magnetically-driven-phase-transformation-strengthening-in-4wep13rq1c.pdf

Magnetically-driven phase transformation strengthening in high entropy alloys

Spin-driven ordering of Cr in an equiatomic fcc NiFeCrCo high entropy alloy (HEA) was predicted by first-principles calculations. Ordering of Cr is driven by the reduction in energy realized by surrounding anti-ferromagnetic Cr with ferromagnetic Ni, Fe, and Co in an alloyed L12 structure. The fully Cr-ordered alloyed L12 phase was predicted to have a magnetic moment that is 36% of that for the magnetically frustrated random solid solution. Three samples were synthesized by milling or casting/annealing. The cast/annealed sample was found to have a low temperature magnetic moment that is 44% of the moment in the milled sample, which is consistent with theoretical predictions for ordering. Scanning transmission electron microscopy measurements were performed and the presence of ordered nano-domains in cast/annealed samples throughout the equiatomic NiFeCrCo HEA was identified.

Changning Niu

Papers

Mechanical Properties and Stacking Fault Energies of NiFeCrCoMn High-Entropy Alloy

A Novel Low-Density, High-Hardness, High-entropy Alloy with Close-packed Single-phase Nanocrystalline Structures

The evolution of the deformation substructure in a Ni-Co-Cr equiatomic solid solution alloy

Magnetically-driven phase transformation strengthening in high entropy alloys

Spin-driven ordering of Cr in the equiatomic high entropy alloy NiFeCrCo