A combinatorial assessment of composition‐microstructure‐magnetic property relationships in magnetic high entropy AlCoxCr1‐xFeNi alloy (0 ≤ x ≤ 1) system has been carried out using compositionally graded alloys fabricated via laser additive manufacturing. At one end, the AlCoFeNi composition (x = 1) consisted of equiaxed B2 grains, exhibiting very early stages of phase separation (only compositional partitioning) into Ni–Al rich and Fe–Co rich regions within grains of the B2 phase. At the other extreme, the AlCrFeNi composition (x = 0) exhibited grains with pronounced spinodal decomposition, resulting in a B2 + bcc microstructure with the degree of spinodal decomposition progressively increasing with Cr content in these AlCoxCr1–xFeNi alloys. While the saturation magnetization (Ms) monotonically increases six times from x = 0 to x = 1, the coercivity (Hc) variation is non‐monotonic, increasing seven times from x = 0 to x = 0.4, and subsequently decreasing fourteen times from x = 0.4 to x = 1.0. The magnetic phase transition temperature (Tc) for these alloys also increases monotonically with increasing Co content with a second phase transition exhibited in a certain range of compositions between x = 0.6 to x = 0.8. Such substantial changes in the magnetization behavior and properties of magnetic high entropy systems opens possibilities of tuning these alloys for specific soft or hard magnetic component applications.
A detailed investigation of precipitation of the ordered L1 2 (γ′) phase in a Al 0.3 CrCuFeNi 2 high entropy alloy (HEA), more generally referred to as a complex concentrated alloy (CCA), reveals the role of copper (Cu) on stabilization and precipitation of the ordered L1 2 (γ′) phase. Detailed characterization via coupling of scanning and transmission electron microscopy, and atom probe tomography revealed novel insights into Cu clustering within the face-centered cubic matrix of this HEA, leading to heterogeneous nucleation sites for the γ′ precipitates. The subsequent partitioning of Cu into the γ′ precipitates indicates their stabilization is due to Cu addition. The γ′ order-disorder transition temperature was determined to be ~930 o C in this alloy, based on synchrotron diffraction experiments, involving in situ annealing. The growth and high temperature stability of the γ′ precipitates was also confirmed via systematic scanning electron microscopy investigations of samples annealed at temperatures in the range of 700 -900°C. The role of Cu revealed by this study can be employed in the design of precipitation strengthened HEAs, as well as in a more general sense applied to other types of superalloys, with the objective of potentially enhancing their mechanical properties at room and elevated temperatures.
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