Exceptional damage-tolerance of a medium-entropy alloy CrCoNi at cryogenic temperatures

Bernd Gludovatz, Anton Hohenwarter, Keli V. S. Thurston, Hongbin Bei, Zhenggang Wu, Easo P. George () and Robert O. Ritchie ()
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Bernd Gludovatz: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Anton Hohenwarter: Montanuniversität Leoben and Erich Schmid Institute of Materials Science, Austrian Academy of Sciences
Keli V. S. Thurston: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Hongbin Bei: Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Zhenggang Wu: University of Tennessee
Easo P. George: Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Robert O. Ritchie: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Nature Communications, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract High-entropy alloys are an intriguing new class of metallic materials that derive their properties from being multi-element systems that can crystallize as a single phase, despite containing high concentrations of five or more elements with different crystal structures. Here we examine an equiatomic medium-entropy alloy containing only three elements, CrCoNi, as a single-phase face-centred cubic solid solution, which displays strength-toughness properties that exceed those of all high-entropy alloys and most multi-phase alloys. At room temperature, the alloy shows tensile strengths of almost 1 GPa, failure strains of ∼70% and KJIc fracture-toughness values above 200 MPa m1/2; at cryogenic temperatures strength, ductility and toughness of the CrCoNi alloy improve to strength levels above 1.3 GPa, failure strains up to 90% and KJIc values of 275 MPa m1/2. Such properties appear to result from continuous steady strain hardening, which acts to suppress plastic instability, resulting from pronounced dislocation activity and deformation-induced nano-twinning.

Date: 2016
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms10602

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