Anneal hardening has been one of the approaches to improve mechanical properties of solid solution alloys with the face-centered cubic(FCC) structure,whereby a considerable strengthening can be attained by annealing o...Anneal hardening has been one of the approaches to improve mechanical properties of solid solution alloys with the face-centered cubic(FCC) structure,whereby a considerable strengthening can be attained by annealing of cold-worked alloys below the recrystallization temperature(T_(rx)).Microscopically,this hardening effect has been ascribed to several mechanisms,i.e.solute segregation to defects(dislocation and stacking fault) and short-range chemical ordering,etc.However,none of these mechanisms can well explain the anneal hardening recently observed in phase-pure and coarse-grained FCC-structured high-entropy alloys(HEAs).Here we report the observations,using high-resolution electron channeling contrast imaging and transmission electron microscopy,of profuse and stable dislocation substructures in a cold-rolled CoCrFeMnNi HEA subject to an annealing below T_(rx).The dislocation substructures are observed to be thermally stable up to T_(rx),which could arise from the chemical complexity of the high-entropy system where certain elemental diffusion retardation occurs.The microstructure feature is markedly different from that of conventional dilute solid solution alloys,in which dislocation substructures gradually vanish by recovery during annealing,leading to a strength drop.Furthermore,dilute addition of 2 at.% Al leads to a reduction in both microhardness and yield strength of the cold-rolled and subsequently annealed(≤500℃) HEA.This Al induced softening effect,could be associated with the anisotropic formation of dislocation substructure,resulting from enhanced dislocation planar slip due to glide plane softening effect.These findings suggest that the strength of HEAs can be tailored through the anneal hardening effect from dislocation substructure strengthening.展开更多
Due to the easy coarsening caused by poor thermal stability,the verified annealing-induced hardening in nanograined metals can only maintain at a relatively low-temperature range.In this study,a nanolam-inated(CrCoNi)...Due to the easy coarsening caused by poor thermal stability,the verified annealing-induced hardening in nanograined metals can only maintain at a relatively low-temperature range.In this study,a nanolam-inated(CrCoNi)_(97.4)Al_(0.8)Ti_(1.8)medium-entropy alloy with an average lamellae thickness of∼20 nm embedded by thinner nanotwins was fabricated by severe cold rolling to achieve superior thermal stability.Compared with the conventional nanotwinned CrCoNi with nanotwins inside ultra-fined grains,the hier-archical nanolaminated-nanotwinned(CrCoNi)_(97.4)Al_(0.8)Ti_(1.8) exhibits a significant annealing-induced hard-ening effect,i.e.,hardness increasing from∼250 HV in the original specimen to∼500 HV in the cold-rolled status and finally∼630 HV after annealing at 600℃for 1 h.Detailed microstructure characterizations reveal that the reduced dislocation density and formation of L1_(2)ordered domain are mainly responsible for such hardening effect,which is facilitated by the effectively suppressed coarsening with annealing temperature,i.e.,slow detwinning process and well-retained low-angle nanolamellar structure.The coarsening mechanisms from the cold-rolled nanolamellae to the fully recrystallized micro-equiaxed structures under the annealing temperatures ranging from 400 to 800℃ were also elucidated by atomic observations.展开更多
基金financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52001120)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 531118010450)+10 种基金the Hundred Talent Program of Hunan Provincethe State Key Laboratory of Powder Metallurgy,Central South University,Changshathe State Key Laboratory of Advanced Metals and Materials(No. 2021-Z09)University of Science&Technology Beijing,Chinasupported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51801060)supported by the Swedish Research Councilsupported by the National Science Foundation under Contract (No. DMR-1408722)sponsored by the Whiting School of EngineeringJohns Hopkins Universityfunded by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2016YFB0300801)the National NaturalScience Foundation of China (Nos. 51831004, 11427806, 51671082,51471067)。
文摘Anneal hardening has been one of the approaches to improve mechanical properties of solid solution alloys with the face-centered cubic(FCC) structure,whereby a considerable strengthening can be attained by annealing of cold-worked alloys below the recrystallization temperature(T_(rx)).Microscopically,this hardening effect has been ascribed to several mechanisms,i.e.solute segregation to defects(dislocation and stacking fault) and short-range chemical ordering,etc.However,none of these mechanisms can well explain the anneal hardening recently observed in phase-pure and coarse-grained FCC-structured high-entropy alloys(HEAs).Here we report the observations,using high-resolution electron channeling contrast imaging and transmission electron microscopy,of profuse and stable dislocation substructures in a cold-rolled CoCrFeMnNi HEA subject to an annealing below T_(rx).The dislocation substructures are observed to be thermally stable up to T_(rx),which could arise from the chemical complexity of the high-entropy system where certain elemental diffusion retardation occurs.The microstructure feature is markedly different from that of conventional dilute solid solution alloys,in which dislocation substructures gradually vanish by recovery during annealing,leading to a strength drop.Furthermore,dilute addition of 2 at.% Al leads to a reduction in both microhardness and yield strength of the cold-rolled and subsequently annealed(≤500℃) HEA.This Al induced softening effect,could be associated with the anisotropic formation of dislocation substructure,resulting from enhanced dislocation planar slip due to glide plane softening effect.These findings suggest that the strength of HEAs can be tailored through the anneal hardening effect from dislocation substructure strengthening.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China Project(No.51971187)Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation(No.2022A1515011322)+2 种基金PolyU Fund(No.G-YBZ3)funding support to the State Key Laboratories in Hong Kong from the Innovation and Technology Commission of the Government of the HKASR,ChinaSY and LQ were supported by grants from the Research Committee of PolyU under student account codes RK2J and RK2U,respectively.
文摘Due to the easy coarsening caused by poor thermal stability,the verified annealing-induced hardening in nanograined metals can only maintain at a relatively low-temperature range.In this study,a nanolam-inated(CrCoNi)_(97.4)Al_(0.8)Ti_(1.8)medium-entropy alloy with an average lamellae thickness of∼20 nm embedded by thinner nanotwins was fabricated by severe cold rolling to achieve superior thermal stability.Compared with the conventional nanotwinned CrCoNi with nanotwins inside ultra-fined grains,the hier-archical nanolaminated-nanotwinned(CrCoNi)_(97.4)Al_(0.8)Ti_(1.8) exhibits a significant annealing-induced hard-ening effect,i.e.,hardness increasing from∼250 HV in the original specimen to∼500 HV in the cold-rolled status and finally∼630 HV after annealing at 600℃for 1 h.Detailed microstructure characterizations reveal that the reduced dislocation density and formation of L1_(2)ordered domain are mainly responsible for such hardening effect,which is facilitated by the effectively suppressed coarsening with annealing temperature,i.e.,slow detwinning process and well-retained low-angle nanolamellar structure.The coarsening mechanisms from the cold-rolled nanolamellae to the fully recrystallized micro-equiaxed structures under the annealing temperatures ranging from 400 to 800℃ were also elucidated by atomic observations.
