Nature of CoCrFeMnNi/Fe and CoCrFeMnNi/Al Solid/Solid Interface

To shed light into the application potential of high-entropy alloys as “interlayer” materials for Al-steel solid-state joining, we investigated the nature of the CoCrFeMnNi/Fe and CoCrFeMnNi/Al solid/solid interfaces, focusing on the bonding behavior and phase components. Good metallurgical bonding without the formation of hard and brittle IMC can be achieved for CoCrFeMnNi/Fe solid/solid interface. In contrast to the formation of Al5Fe2 phase at the Fe/Al interface, Al13Fe4-type IMC, in which the Fe site is co-occupied equally by Co, Cr, Fe, Mn and Ni, dominates the CoCrFeMnNi/Al interface. Although the formation of IMC at the CoCrFeMnNi/Al interface is not avoidable, the thickness and hardness of the Al13(CoCrFeMnNi)4 phase formed at the CoCrFeMnNi/Al interface are significantly lower than the Al5Fe2 phase formed at the Fe/Al interface. The activation energies for the interdiffusion of Fe/Al and CoCrFeMnNi/Al static diffusion couple are 341.6 kJ/mol and 329.5 kJ/mol, respectively. Despite this similarity, under identical static annealing condition, the interdiffusion coefficient of the CoCrFeMnNi/Al diffusion couple is significantly lower than that of the Fe/Al diffusion couple. This is thus mainly a result of the reduced atomic mobility/diffusivity caused by the compositional complexity in CoCrFeMnNi high-entropy alloy.

Comparing the Through-Thickness Gradient of the Deformed and Recrystallized Microstructure in Tantalum with Unidirectional and Clock Rolling

Controlling the microstructure homogeneity is crucial in achieving high quality tantalum (Ta) sputtering targets used in integrated circuit fabrication. Unluckily, traditional rolling easily generates a microstructure gradient along the thickness direction in Ta sheets. The deformation and recrystallization behavior of unidirectional and clock rolled Ta with an 87% strain were therefore systematically compared to investigate whether the change of strain-pass can effectively ameliorate the microstructure gradient along the thickness. Electron backscatter diffraction was used to analyze the misorientation characteristics of the deformed grains. A strong microstructure gradient exists in the unidirectional rolled (UR) sheets. Many microshear bands and well-defined microbands occurred in {111} deformed grains in the UR sheets, especially in the center region, while the grain fragmentation with {111} and {100} orientation in the clock rolled (CR) sheets was more homogenous along the thickness. The kernel average misorientation (KAM) and grain reference orientation deviation-hyper (GROD-Hyper) further confirmed these differences. X-ray line profile analysis (XLPA) indicated that the stored energy distribution was more inhomogeneous in the UR sheets. Schmid factor analysis suggested that the strain path changes due to clock rolling promoted the activation of multiple slip systems in {111} oriented grains. Upon static annealing, homogeneous nucleation combined with a slower grain growth rate resulted in finer and more uniform grain size for the CR sheet. In contrast, a strong recrystallization microstructure-gradient along the thickness formed in the UR sheets, which is attributed to the fact that the higher stored energy and more preferential nucleation sites led to faster recrystallization in the center region, as compared with the surface region. Thus, clock rolling can effectively improve the homogeneity of the through-thickness recrystallization microstructure of Ta sheets.

Tuning the Structure and the Mechanical Properties of Ultrafine Grain Al–Zn Alloys by Short Time Annealing

Solid solution treated Al-Zn alloys with different Zn contents (10 and 30 wt.%) have been nanostructured by severe plastic deformation (SPD) via equal-channel angular pressing method. In-situ transmission electron microscopy observations have been used to follow microstructure evolutions upon annealing. It was shown that SPD leads to the precipitation of Zn particles and that this partial solid solution decomposition was more pronounced in the Al- 30%Zn alloy. Annealing at temperatures in range of 200 to 250 °C led to visible dissolution of Zn particles in both alloys and to formation of extensive grain boundary segregations of Zn. This approach helped to design short term annealing treatments leading to specific ultrafine grain structures that could be achieved by static annealing on bulk samples. Last, the tensile behavior of these materials has been investigated with a special emphasis on the influence of the strain rate on the yield stress and on the elongation to failure. It is shown that in any case the yield stress is mainly controlled by the grain size, while a low volume fraction of Zn phase leads to a relatively modest ductility.