Effect of WC grain size on mechanical properties and microstructures of cemented carbide with medium entropy alloy Co-Ni-Fe binder

For developing new binder phase with high performance, Co-Ni-Fe alloy was used as binder in cemented carbides. The mechanical properties of WC-CoNiFe and WC-Co cemented carbides with different grain sizes were studied. The results show that the reprecipitation of WC-CoNiFe is inhibited compared with that of WC-Co during sintering process, and the grains in WC-CoNiFe cemented carbides are more of smooth shape, resulting in a slightly lower hardness and higher transverse rupture strength. With the increase of the grain size, the hardness of the two cemented carbides decreases, and the transverse rupture strength increases. However, the slope values of K in Hall-Petch relationship are higher in WC-CoNiFe than those in WC-Co, indicating the high toughness of medium entropy alloy Co-Ni-Fe.