High Entropy Alloys

Research Scholar: Varalakshmi, Sriharitha, and Praveen

In general, commercial alloy systems are based on one principal element and the total quantum of solute
atoms is not large in many cases. In contrast, high-entropy alloys are equiatomic multicomponent alloys.
These alloys form simple solid solutions due to the large configurational entropy. If these multi-metallic
cocktails are made in nanocrystalline state, they are expected to have high strength coupled with
reasonable formability. Nanocrystalline high entropy alloys can be made easily by high energy ball
milling. Fig 1 shows the XRD patterns of hexnary AlFeTiCrZnCu equiatomic elemental blend at different
intervals of milling. The complete disappearance of all the elemental peaks and the formation of single
phase solid solution is evident within 10h of milling. The TEM dark field image and the corresponding
selected area diffraction (SAD) pattern shown in Fig. 2 for the multicomponent AlFeTiCrZnCu high
entropy alloy proves the nanocrystalline nature alloy, which has a BCC structure. This alloy retains its
nanocrystalline BCC structure even after heating to 800oC has a hardness of about 2 GPa. Similar
nanocrystalline high entropy alloys have been made in other multicomponent systems such as
CuNiCoZnAlTi, FeMnNiAlCrCo and NiFeCrCoMnW.

Fig. 1 X-ray Diffraction patterns of equiatomic hexnary

AlFeTiCrZnCu high entropy alloy

Dr. B.S. Murty, FNAE, FASc, FNASc

Professor
Dept. of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Madras
Chennai 600 036, India

Fig. 2 TEM dark field image and SAD pattern of

AlFeTiCrZnCu hexnary alloy after 20h of
mechanical alloying