High-entropy alloys are equiatomic, multi-element systems that can crystallize as a single phase, despite containing multiple elements with different crystal structures. A rationale for this is that ...the configurational entropy contribution to the total free energy in alloys with five or more major elements may stabilize the solid-solution state relative to multiphase microstructures.We examined a five-element high-entropy alloy, CrMnFeCoNi, which forms a single-phase face-centered cubic solid solution, and found it to have exceptional damage tolerance with tensile strengths above 1 GPa and fracture toughness values exceeding 200 MPa·m1/2. Furthermore, its mechanical properties actually improve at cryogenic temperatures; we attribute this to a transition from planar-slip dislocation activity at room temperature to deformation by mechanical nanotwinning with decreasing temperature, which results in continuous steady strain hardening.
High-entropy alloys George, Easo P.; Raabe, Dierk; Ritchie, Robert O.
Nature reviews. Materials,
08/2019, Volume:
4, Issue:
8
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
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 are an intriguing new class of metallic materials that derive their properties from being multi-element systems that can crystallize as a single phase, despite containing high ...concentrations of five or more elements with different crystal structures. Here we examine an equiatomic medium-entropy alloy containing only three elements, CrCoNi, as a single-phase face-centred cubic solid solution, which displays strength-toughness properties that exceed those of all high-entropy alloys and most multi-phase alloys. At room temperature, the alloy shows tensile strengths of almost 1 GPa, failure strains of ∼70% and KJIc fracture-toughness values above 200 MPa m(1/2); at cryogenic temperatures strength, ductility and toughness of the CrCoNi alloy improve to strength levels above 1.3 GPa, failure strains up to 90% and KJIc values of 275 MPa m(1/2). Such properties appear to result from continuous steady strain hardening, which acts to suppress plastic instability, resulting from pronounced dislocation activity and deformation-induced nano-twinning.
The alloy's matrix has a cubic lattice containing mostly iron, cobalt and nickel atoms, with small amounts of aluminium and tantalum. Crystalline materials are composed of grains, and the coercivity ...of crystalline soft magnetic materials decreases with the sixth power of the grain size, for grains smaller than about 0.5 micrometres (ref. 4). ...the usual way to achieve low coercivity is to use nanocrystalline materials that have tiny grain sizes (less than 15 nm) or amorphous materials - which can be thought of as having even smaller 'grain sizes' of approximately atomic distances, because they lack the long-range order of crystalline materials and possess only short-range order. ...3D printing of soft magnetic materials10,11 offers opportunities for local tailoring of the composition and microstructure of multicomponent alloys, as well as for optimizing the topology of components made from soft magnetic materials.
Combinations of high strength and ductility are hard to attain in metals. Exceptions include materials exhibiting twinning-induced plasticity. To understand how the strength-ductility trade-off can ...be defeated, we apply in situ, and aberration-corrected scanning, transmission electron microscopy to examine deformation mechanisms in the medium-entropy alloy CrCoNi that exhibits one of the highest combinations of strength, ductility and toughness on record. Ab initio modelling suggests that it has negative stacking-fault energy at 0K and high propensity for twinning. With deformation we find that a three-dimensional (3D) hierarchical twin network forms from the activation of three twinning systems. This serves a dual function: conventional twin-boundary (TB) strengthening from blockage of dislocations impinging on TBs, coupled with the 3D twin network which offers pathways for dislocation glide along, and cross-slip between, intersecting TB-matrix interfaces. The stable twin architecture is not disrupted by interfacial dislocation glide, serving as a continuous source of strength, ductility and toughness.
Damage tolerance can be an elusive characteristic of structural materials requiring both high strength and ductility, properties that are often mutually exclusive. High-entropy alloys are of interest ...in this regard. Specifically, the single-phase CrMnFeCoNi alloy displays tensile strength levels of ∼ 1 GPa, excellent ductility (∼ 60-70%) and exceptional fracture toughness (KJIc>200 MPa√m). Here through the use of in situ straining in an aberration-corrected transmission electron microscope, we report on the salient atomistic to micro-scale mechanisms underlying the origin of these properties. We identify a synergy of multiple deformation mechanisms, rarely achieved in metallic alloys, which generates high strength, work hardening and ductility, including the easy motion of Shockley partials, their interactions to form stacking-fault parallelepipeds, and arrest at planar slip bands of undissociated dislocations. We further show that crack propagation is impeded by twinned, nanoscale bridges that form between the near-tip crack faces and delay fracture by shielding the crack tip.
Equiatomic multi-component alloys, referred to variously as high-entropy alloys, multi-component alloys, or compositionally complex alloys in the literature, have recently received significant ...attention in the materials science community. Some of these alloys can display a good combination of mechanical properties. Here, we review recent work on the processing, microstructure and mechanical properties of one of the first and most studied high-entropy alloys, namely the single-phase, face-centered cubic alloy CrMnFeCoNi, with emphasis on its excellent damage tolerance (strength with toughness) in the temperature range from room temperature down to liquid nitrogen temperature.
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Technologically important mechanical properties of engineering materials often degrade at low temperatures. One class of materials that defy this trend are CrCoNi-based medium- and ...high-entropy alloys, as they display enhanced strength, ductility, and toughness with decreasing temperature. Here we show, using in situ straining in the transmission electron microscope at 93 K (−180 °C) that their exceptional damage tolerance involves a synergy of deformation mechanisms, including twinning, glide of partials and full dislocations, extensive cross-slip, and multiple slip activated by dislocation and grain-boundary interactions. In particular, massive cross-slip occurs at the early stages of plastic deformation, thereby promoting multiple slip and dislocation interactions. These results indicate that the reduced intensity of thermal activation of defects at low temperatures and the required increase of applied stress for continued plastic flow, together with high lattice resistance, play a pivotal role in promoting the concurrent operation of multiple deformation mechanisms, which collectively enable the outstanding mechanical properties of these alloys.
The equiatomic high-entropy alloy (HEA), CrMnFeCoNi, has recently been shown to be microstructurally unstable, resulting in a multi-phase microstructure after intermediate-temperature annealing ...treatments. The decomposition occurs rapidly in the nanocrystalline (NC) state and after longer annealing times in coarse-grained states. To characterize the mechanical properties of differently annealed NC states containing multiple phases, nanoindentation was used. The results revealed besides drastic changes in hardness, also for the first time significant changes in the Young's modulus and strain rate sensitivity. Nanoindentation of NC HEAs is, therefore, a useful complementary screening tool with high potential as a high throughput approach to detect phase decomposition, which can also be used to qualitatively predict the long-term stability of single-phase HEAs.
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•Nanoindentation as a high throughput, screening tool to probe decomposition in HEAs•Qualitative characterization of phase formation by Young's modulus analysis•Reduction in experimental preparation time compared to advanced microstructural characterization techniques (TEM, APT)•Increased strain-rate sensitivity in UFG but also in CG state•Strong scatter in Young's modulus in CG and SX state due to elastic anisotropy
The plastic deformation behavior of single crystals of the quinary, equiatomic Cr−Mn−Fe−Co−Ni high-entropy alloy (HEA) with the face-centered cubic structure has been investigated in tension and ...compression as a function of crystal orientation and temperature from 10 K to 1373 K. The critical resolved shear stress (CRSS) for {111} slip at room temperature is 42−45 MPa. It does not depend much on crystal orientation (i.e., the Schmid law holds true) and the sense (tension vs. compression) of the applied load. The CRSS for {111} slip increases with the decrease in temperature, without showing any significant inertia effects at cryogenic temperatures below 77 K. Extrapolation from the measured yield stresses down to 10 K yields a CRSS value at 0 K of 168 MPa. At cryogenic temperatures, the measured strain-rate sensitivity of flow stress is consistent with a very small activation volume. The concept of stress equivalence holds true both for the temperature dependence of CRSS and the stress dependence of activation volume, indicating that solid-solution hardening is the major strengthening mechanism. Deformation twinning occurs at 77 K but not at room temperature, resulting in higher tensile elongation to failure at 77 K than at room temperature. Deformation twinning at 77 K occurs at a shear stress of 378 MPa on conjugate (1¯1¯1) planes in the form of Lüders deformation after large plastic strain (about 85%) achieved by the stage I (easy glide) and stage II (linear work-hardening) deformation.
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