Enhanced structural refinement on eutectic medium-entropy alloy CrCoNiNb0.48 by laser remelting

A novel efficient method to design eutectic medium-entropy alloys with typical lamellar structure is successfully proposed. The CrCoNiNb0.48 alloy is prepared with microstructure comprised of FCC and Laves phases. After laser remelting, the nano-scale eutectic lamellar is formed and the eutectic lamellar spacing is refined to approximately 30 nm from 300 nm (as-cast). Thus, the hardness of CrCoNiNb0.48 with laser remelting is approximately 50% increase over as-cast. Moreover, through calculation, the strain hardening exponent of the laser-treated alloy is almost twice of that in the as-cast alloy.

Automated summary

A novel efficient method for designing eutectic medium-entropy alloys with typical lamellar structure is successfully proposed. After laser remelting, the eutectic lamellar spacing is refined and the hardness of the alloy is significantly increased, with the strain hardening exponent almost doubled compared to the as-cast alloy.