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Strength and ductility synergy of Nb-alloyed Ni0.6CoFe1.4 alloys

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Abstract

Designing strong, yet ductile, and body-centered cubic (BCC) medium-entropy alloys (MEAs) remains to be a challenge nowadays. In this study, the strength—ductility trade-off of Ni0.6CoFe1.4 MEAs was tackled via introducing a BCC + face-centered cubic (FCC) dual-phase microstructure. Ni0.6CoFe1.4Nbx (x = 0, 0.05, 0.08, 0.10, and 0.15, in molar ratio) MEAs were prepared using vacuum induction melting. Results show that the new alloy is composed of BCC plus FCC dual phases featuring a network-like structure, and the BCC phase is the main phase in this alloy system. Moreover, the Nb0.10 MEA shows high strength and respectable tensile ductility, representing the best combination of the strength and fracture elongation among the alloys studied here. The remarkable strength of the Nb0.10 MEA is attributed to the combined effect of the solid solution strengthening, the precipitation hardening effect and the interface strengthening effect.

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Acknowledgement

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51571118).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210094, China

    Jian Wu & Heguo Zhu

  2. School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, 5005, Australia

    Zonghan Xie

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  1. Jian Wu
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  2. Heguo Zhu
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Correspondence to Heguo Zhu.

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Wu, J., Zhu, H. & Xie, Z. Strength and ductility synergy of Nb-alloyed Ni0.6CoFe1.4 alloys. Int J Miner Metall Mater 30, 707–714 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12613-022-2567-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12613-022-2567-4

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