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Title: High-content ductile coherent nanoprecipitates achieve ultrastrong high-entropy alloys

Abstract

Precipitation-hardening high-entropy alloys (PH-HEAs) with good strength-ductility balances are a promising candidate for advanced structural applications. However, current HEAs emphasize near-equiatomic initial compositions, which limit the increase of intermetallic precipitates that are closely related to the alloy strength. Here we present a strategy to design ultrastrong HEAs with high-content nanoprecipitates by phase separation, which can generate a near-equiatomic matrix in situ while forming strengthening phases, producing a PH-HEA regardless of the initial atomic ratio. Accordingly, we develop a non-equiatomic alloy that utilizes spinodal decomposition to create a low-misfit coherent nanostructure combining a near-equiatomic disordered face-centered-cubic (FCC) matrix with high-content ductile Ni3Al-type ordered nanoprecipitates. As a result, we find that this spinodal order-disorder nanostructure contributes to a strength increase of similar to 1.5 GPa (>560%) relative to the HEA without precipitation, achieving one of the highest tensile strength (1.9 GPa) among all bulk HEAs reported previously while retaining good ductility (>9%).

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [1];  [3];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [1];  [1];  [1]
  1. Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing (China)
  2. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China)
  3. Nanjing Univ. of Science and Technology, Nanjing (China)
  4. Univ. of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing (China)
  5. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
  6. Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC); China Postdoctoral Science Foundation; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
OSTI Identifier:
1504263
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-06CH11357
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Nature Communications
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 9; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE

Citation Formats

Liang, Yao -Jian, Wang, Linjing, Wen, Yuren, Cheng, Baoyuan, Wu, Qinli, Cao, Tangqing, Xiao, Qian, Xue, Yunfei, Sha, Gang, Wang, Yandong, Ren, Yang, Li, Xiaoyan, Wang, Lu, Wang, Fuchi, and Cai, Hongnian. High-content ductile coherent nanoprecipitates achieve ultrastrong high-entropy alloys. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1038/s41467-018-06600-8.
Liang, Yao -Jian, Wang, Linjing, Wen, Yuren, Cheng, Baoyuan, Wu, Qinli, Cao, Tangqing, Xiao, Qian, Xue, Yunfei, Sha, Gang, Wang, Yandong, Ren, Yang, Li, Xiaoyan, Wang, Lu, Wang, Fuchi, & Cai, Hongnian. High-content ductile coherent nanoprecipitates achieve ultrastrong high-entropy alloys. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06600-8
Liang, Yao -Jian, Wang, Linjing, Wen, Yuren, Cheng, Baoyuan, Wu, Qinli, Cao, Tangqing, Xiao, Qian, Xue, Yunfei, Sha, Gang, Wang, Yandong, Ren, Yang, Li, Xiaoyan, Wang, Lu, Wang, Fuchi, and Cai, Hongnian. Wed . "High-content ductile coherent nanoprecipitates achieve ultrastrong high-entropy alloys". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06600-8. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1504263.
@article{osti_1504263,
title = {High-content ductile coherent nanoprecipitates achieve ultrastrong high-entropy alloys},
author = {Liang, Yao -Jian and Wang, Linjing and Wen, Yuren and Cheng, Baoyuan and Wu, Qinli and Cao, Tangqing and Xiao, Qian and Xue, Yunfei and Sha, Gang and Wang, Yandong and Ren, Yang and Li, Xiaoyan and Wang, Lu and Wang, Fuchi and Cai, Hongnian},
abstractNote = {Precipitation-hardening high-entropy alloys (PH-HEAs) with good strength-ductility balances are a promising candidate for advanced structural applications. However, current HEAs emphasize near-equiatomic initial compositions, which limit the increase of intermetallic precipitates that are closely related to the alloy strength. Here we present a strategy to design ultrastrong HEAs with high-content nanoprecipitates by phase separation, which can generate a near-equiatomic matrix in situ while forming strengthening phases, producing a PH-HEA regardless of the initial atomic ratio. Accordingly, we develop a non-equiatomic alloy that utilizes spinodal decomposition to create a low-misfit coherent nanostructure combining a near-equiatomic disordered face-centered-cubic (FCC) matrix with high-content ductile Ni3Al-type ordered nanoprecipitates. As a result, we find that this spinodal order-disorder nanostructure contributes to a strength increase of similar to 1.5 GPa (>560%) relative to the HEA without precipitation, achieving one of the highest tensile strength (1.9 GPa) among all bulk HEAs reported previously while retaining good ductility (>9%).},
doi = {10.1038/s41467-018-06600-8},
journal = {Nature Communications},
number = 1,
volume = 9,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Oct 03 00:00:00 EDT 2018},
month = {Wed Oct 03 00:00:00 EDT 2018}
}

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Microstructure characterization of Al x CoCrCuFeNi high-entropy alloy system with multiprincipal elements
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Effect of aging temperature on microstructure and properties of AlCoCrCuFeNi high-entropy alloy
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Effects of Al addition on the microstructure and mechanical property of AlxCoCrFeNi high-entropy alloys
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Effect of coherent L12 nanoprecipitates on the tensile behavior of a fcc-based high-entropy alloy
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Microstructures and properties of high-entropy alloys
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Microstructural parameters from X-ray diffraction peak broadening
journal, October 2004


Precipitation of ordered phases in metallic solid solutions: A synergistic clustering and ordering process
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Effect of decomposition of the Cr–Fe–Co rich phase of AlCoCrCuFeNi high entropy alloy on magnetic properties
journal, May 2011


Phase separation in equiatomic AlCoCrFeNi high-entropy alloy
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Stabilizing nanostructures in metals using grain and twin boundary architectures
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journal, January 2017

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Works referencing / citing this record:

Enhanced strength–ductility synergy in ultrafine-grained eutectic high-entropy alloys by inheriting microstructural lamellae
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