Comparative Study of Mechanical and Corrosion Behaviors of Cost-Effective AlCrFeNi High Entropy Alloys

• Published in: Journal of materials engineering and performance Vol. 31; no. 6; pp. 4472 - 4482
• Main Authors: Wu, Hao, Xie, Jun, Yang, Huai-Yu, Shu, De-Long, Hou, Gui-Chen, Li, Jin-Guo, Zhou, Yi-Zhou, Sun, Xiao-Feng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.06.2022
• Subjects: Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Corrosion and Coatings; Engineering Design; Materials Science; Quality Control; Reliability; Safety and Risk; Technical Article; Tribology; electrochemical measurements; corrosion behaviors; mechanical behaviors; high entropy alloys
• ISSN: 1059-9495; 1544-1024
• DOI: 10.1007/s11665-021-06563-w

AlCoCrFeNi 2.1 eutectic high entropy alloy (EHEA) has attracted significant interest among researchers due to unprecedented mechanical properties compared with single-phase solid solution high entropy alloys; however, the high content of cobalt element limits its engineering applications. In this paper, the mechanical and corrosion behaviors of cost-effective AlCrFeNi 3.1 and AlCrFe 2 Ni 2.1 HEAs were systematically studied by tensile tests and electrochemical methods; meanwhile, the results were compared with AlCoCrFeNi 2.1 EHEA. The results indicated that all the studied HEAs showed dual phase microstructure composed of FCC and BCC/B2 phases. Due to the hetero-deformation induced strengthening, all the studied HEAs showed an excellent combination of strength and ductility with fracture strength over 1 GPa and fracture strain exceeding 17%, indicating that substituting the cobalt element of AlCoCrFeNi 2.1 EHEA by nickel or iron element is feasible from the perspective of mechanical properties. As for the corrosion behaviors in 3.5 wt.% NaCl solution, AlCrFeNi 3.1 HEA exhibited the best corrosion resistance due to the high volume fraction of the corrosion resistant FCC phases and low Al/Cr ratio of BCC/B2 phases, while AlCrFe 2 Ni 2.1 HEA showed the worst corrosion resistance owing to the high Al/Cr ratio of BCC/B2 phases.