A novel multicomponent alloy, V2.5Cr1.2WMoCo0.04, produced from elements expected to favour a BCC crystal structure, and to be suitable for high temperature environments, was fabricated by arc melting and found to exhibit a multiphase dendritic microstructure with W-rich dendrites and V-Cr segregated to the inter-dendritic cores. The as-cast alloy displayed an apparent single-phase XRD pattern. Following heat treatment at 1187 °C for 500 hours the alloy transformed into three different distinct phases -BCC, orthorhombic, and tetragonal in crystal structure. This attests to the BCC crystal structure observed in the as-cast state being metastable. The radiation damage response was investigated through room temperature 5 MeV Au + ion irradiation studies. Metastable as-cast V2.5Cr1.2WMoCo0.04 shows good resistance to radiation induced damage up to 40 displacements per atom (dpa). 96 wt% of the as-cast single-phase BCC crystal structure remained intact, as exhibited by grazing incidence Xray diffraction (GI-XRD) patterns, whilst the remainder of the alloy transformed into an additional BCC crystal structure with a similar lattice parameter. The exceptional phase stability seen here is attributed to a combination of self-healing processes and the BCC structure, rather than a high configurational entropy, as has been suggested for some of these multicomponent "High Entropy Alloy" types. The importance of the stability of metastable high entropy alloy phases for behaviour under irradiation is for the first time highlighted and the findings thus challenge the current understanding of phase stability after irradiation of systems like the HEAs.
For fusion to be realized as a safe, sustainable source of power, new structural materials need to be developed which can withstand high temperatures and the unique fusion radiation environment. An attractive aspect of fusion is that no long-lived radioactive wastes will be produced, but to achieve this structural materials must comprise reduced activation elements. Compositionally complex alloys (CCAs) (also called high entropy alloys, HEAs) are promising candidates for use in extreme environments, including fusion, but few reported to date have low activation. To address these material challenges, we have produced novel, reduced activation, HEAs by arc-melting, and investigated their thermal stability, and radiation damage resistance using 5 MeV Au 2+ ion implantation. Whilst the alloys were designed to form single phase BCC, using room temperature and non-ambient in situ X-ray diffraction we have revealed the thermodynamically stable structure of these alloys is in fact a sigma phase. We propose that a BCC phase is formed in these alloys, but at high temperatures (>1000 • C). A BCC phase was also formed during heavy ion implantation, which we propose to be due to the rapid heating and cooling that occurs during the thermal spike, effectively freezing in the BCC phase produced by an implantation induced phase transformation. The BCC phase was found to have high hardness and a degree of ductility, making these new alloys attractive in the development of reduced activation HEAs for nuclear applications.
High-entropy alloys (HEAs), i.e., multicomponent alloys where (typically five or more) elements are combined in equal, or roughly equal, quantities, are of great current interest, due to their formation of single, simple structured phases, and the unusual properties they can potentially exhibit. Phase presence may be predicted using semi-empirical methods, but deviations from predictions may be seen during the course of alloy synthesis, with the formation of unexpected phases. The generation of such phases may be controlled with knowledge of the effective solidification temperature; in this full article, Chvorinov’s rule for solidification time is used to estimate this temperature as part of the design of a new multiphase alloy system, TiVCrZr-Six. Further heat treatment of the TiVCrZr-Si system confirms the applicability of this approach. The new compositions demonstrate mechanical properties that suggest potential for optimization for high-temperature applications.
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