Exceptional phase-transformation strengthening of ferrous medium entropy alloys at cryogenic temperatures

Abstract

High-entropy alloys (HEAs) are a newly emerging class of materials that show attractive mechanical properties for structural applications. Particularly, face-centered cubic (fcc) structured HEAs and medium-entropy alloys (MEAs) such as FeMnCoNiCr and CoNiCr alloys, respectively, which exhibit superior fracture toughness and tensile properties at liquid nitrogen temperature, are the potential HEA materials available for cryogenic applications. Here, we report a ferrous Fe60Co15Ni15Cr10 (at%) MEA exhibiting combination of cryogenic tensile strength of similar to 1.5 GPa and ductility of similar to 87% due to the multiple-stage strain hardening. Astonishingly, detailed microstructural observations at each stage reveal the sequential operation of deformation-induced phase transformation from parent fcc to newly formed bcc (body-centered cubic) phases. No compositional heterogeneity is observed at phase boundaries, indicating diffusionless phase transformation, as confirmed by atom probe tomography. The transformation to bcc phase occurs predominantly along grain boundaries (GBs) at the early stage of plastic deformation. Simultaneously, numerous deformation-induced shear bands (SBs) having stacking faults associated to the Shockley partial dislocations and thin hcp plates, form withi