Mechanical Alloying as a Way to Produce Metastable Single-Phase High-Entropy Alloys beyond the Stability Criteria

Various stability criteria developed for high-entropy alloys are applied to compositions produced by mechanical alloying. While they agree with the annealed samples, these criteria fail to describe the as-milled metastable systems, highlighting the ability of mechanical alloying to overcome the limi...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Lucía Santiago-Andrades, Antonio Vidal-Crespo, Javier S. Blázquez, Jhon J. Ipus, Clara F. Conde
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2023-12-01
Series:Nanomaterials
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2079-4991/14/1/27
Description
Summary:Various stability criteria developed for high-entropy alloys are applied to compositions produced by mechanical alloying. While they agree with the annealed samples, these criteria fail to describe the as-milled metastable systems, highlighting the ability of mechanical alloying to overcome the limitations imposed by these criteria. The criteria are based on atomic size (Ω ≥ 1.1 and <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><msub><mrow><mi>δ</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>r</mi></mrow></msub><mtext> </mtext><mo>≤</mo><mtext> </mtext><mn>6</mn></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>.6%) and/or electronegativity misfit, as well as on mixing enthalpy (<inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi mathvariant="sans-serif">Λ</mi><mo>></mo><mn>0.95</mn><mtext> </mtext><mi mathvariant="normal">J</mi><mtext> </mtext><msup><mrow><mi mathvariant="normal">m</mi><mi mathvariant="normal">o</mi><mi mathvariant="normal">l</mi></mrow><mrow><mo>−</mo><mn>1</mn></mrow></msup><msup><mrow><mi mathvariant="normal">K</mi></mrow><mrow><mo>−</mo><mn>1</mn></mrow></msup></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mo>−</mo><mn>5</mn><mtext> </mtext><mi mathvariant="normal">k</mi><mi mathvariant="normal">J</mi><mtext> </mtext><msup><mrow><mi mathvariant="normal">m</mi><mi mathvariant="normal">o</mi><mi mathvariant="normal">l</mi></mrow><mrow><mo>−</mo><mn>1</mn></mrow></msup><mo><</mo><mo>∆</mo><msub><mrow><mi>H</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>m</mi><mi>i</mi><mi>x</mi></mrow></msub><mo><</mo><mn>0</mn></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>), or purely thermodynamic (<inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><msub><mrow><mi mathvariant="sans-serif">ϕ</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>Y</mi><mi>e</mi></mrow></msub><mo>></mo><mn>20</mn></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>; <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><msub><mrow><mi mathvariant="sans-serif">ϕ</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>K</mi><mi>i</mi><mi>n</mi><mi>g</mi></mrow></msub><mo>></mo><mn>1</mn></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>; <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><msub><mrow><mi>T</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>e</mi><mi>f</mi><mi>f</mi></mrow></msub><mo><</mo><mn>500</mn><mtext> </mtext><mi mathvariant="normal">K</mi></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>). These criteria are applied to several compositions found in the literature and to two metastable fcc solid solutions produced by mechanical alloying with compositions Al<sub>0.75</sub>CoXFeNi with X = Cr and Mn. Single-phase microstructures are stable up to above 600 K, leading to more stable multiphase systems after annealing above this temperature. Mössbauer spectrometry shows that, whereas the alloy with Cr is paramagnetic in the as-milled and annealed state, the alloy with Mn changes from paramagnetic to ferromagnetic behavior (Curie temperature ~700 K) after annealing. Thermomagnetic experiments on annealed samples show for both compositions some hysteretic events at high temperatures (850 to 1000 K), probably ascribed to reversible ordering phenomena.
ISSN:2079-4991