Design and mechanical properties of body-centered cubic AlVCr medium-entropy aluminum alloys

The formation of brittle intermetallic compounds and the poor solubility of other metallic elements in Al alloys render the design of high- and medium-entropy Al alloys (HEAls and MEAls, respectively) challenging. Herein, new AlVCr MEAls were developed based on a reverse approach, which involved starting from an equiatomic V-Cr alloy. Al20VCr, Al33VCr, and Al50VCr were synthesized as MEAls using a vacuum induction-based melting process. The microstructural evolution and mechanical properties of the synthesized MEAls were carefully investigated. Body-centered cubic single-phases formed in Al20VCr and Al33VCr MEAls, in keeping with thermodynamic calculation results as well as multiple phaseprediction parameters. While Al33VCr exhibited brittle fracturing owing to chemical ordering, Al20VCr MEAl exhibited a compressive strain and yield strength of -9.4% and -1.0 GPa, respectively. Thus, the reverse approach, which is based on the use of an Al-free system initially, should aid the development of a new class of lightweight HEAls and MEAls.& COPY; 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

New AlVCr medium-entropy alloys (MEAls) were developed by starting from an equiatomic V-Cr alloy. Al20VCr and Al33VCr MEAls formed body-centered cubic single-phases and exhibited good mechanical properties. This reverse approach can aid the development of lightweight high- and medium-entropy Al alloys.