Refractory High-Entropy HfTaTiNbZr-Based Alloys by Combined Use of Ball Milling and Spark Plasma Sintering: Effect of Milling Intensity

Natalia Shkodich, Alexey Sedegov, Kirill Kuskov, Sergey Busurin, Yury Scheck, Sergey Vadchenko, Dmitry Moskovskikh
2020 Metals  
For the first time, a powder of refractory body-centered cubic (bcc) HfTaTiNbZr-based high-entropy alloy (RHEA) was prepared by short-term (90 min) high-energy ball milling (HEBM) followed by spark plasma sintering (SPS) at 1300 °C for 10 min and the resultant bulk material was characterized by XRD and SEM/EDX. The material showed ultra-high Vickers hardness (10.7 GPa) and a density of 9.87 ± 0.18 g/cm³ (98.7%). Our alloy was found to consist of HfZrTiTaNb-based solid solution with bcc
more » ... as a main phase, a hexagonal closest packed (hcp) Hf/Zr-based solid solution, and Me2Fe phases (Me = Hf, Zr) as minor admixtures. Principal elements of the HEA phase were uniformly distributed over the bulk of HfTaTiNbZr-based alloy. Similar alloys synthesized without milling or in the case of low-energy ball milling (LEBM, 10 h) consisted of a bcc HEA and a Hf/Zr-rich hcp solid solution; in this case, the Vickers hardness of such alloys was found to have a value of 6.4 GPa and 5.8 GPa, respectively.
doi:10.3390/met10091268 doaj:53699a7bac4e4e38b47f80e3609e3bea fatcat:6y5yam66lvehjf6w5fe2yugyda