Iranian Journal of Materials Science and Engineering

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The effect of cooling rate after annealing at 900 °C on the microstructure and hardness of high entropy alloys was investigated using two typical samples with the chemical composition of Co₁₆Cr_14.5Fe₂₉Mn_11.5Ni₂₉ and Co_11.5Cr₇Fe₂₇Mn₂₇Ni₂₇(Nb_0.08C_0.5) (at%). The microstructural characterisation and hardness measurements were carried out by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, wavelength-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, electron back scattered diffraction, X-ray diffraction technique and Vickers hardness testing. A face centred cubic crystal structure matrix was observed in both alloys before and after annealing and regardless of cooling conditions. SEM analyses revealed an extensive precipitation in Co_11.5Cr₇Fe₂₇Mn₂₇Ni₂₇(Nb_0.08C_0.5) alloy after annealing. It was also found that air/furnace cooling can enhance grain growth-coarsening just in Co₁₆Cr_14.5Fe₂₉Mn_11.5Ni₂₉. However, the hardness results generally showed insignificant hardness variations in both alloys after water-quenching, air-cooling and furnace-cooling. The results suggested that the hardness is mainly controlled by solid solution strengthening.

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In the present study, the effects of boron on the structural and magnetic properties of AlCrFeNiMnSiB_x high entropy alloys (HEAs) were investigated. In this regards, different percentages of boron element were added to the based composition and the samples were identified using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) methods. Based on results, the tendency of Si element to formation of silicide phases prevents from the stabilization of single FCC and BCC solid solution phases in AlCrFeNiMnSi alloy. The boron element has significant effects on destabilization of silicide phases and by increasing in the percentage of this element, the simple BCC solid solution phase has been dominate phase. Of course, boron has distractive effects on magnetic properties of prepared alloys and the saturation of magnetization of AlCrFeNiMnSiB_x HEAs decrease from 29.8 emu/g to about 6 emu/g by increasing the boron content.