Rapid preparation of AlCoCrFeNi high entropy alloy by spark plasma sintering from elemental powder mixture

A rapid method using spark plasma sintering (SPS) to prepare the AlCoCrFeNi high entropy alloy (HEA) from elemental powder mixture is firstly presented. The SPSed AlCoCrFeNi HEA consists of a face-centered cubic (FCC) phase and a duplex body-centered cubic (BCC) structure (composed of spinodally modulated disordered and ordered BCC phases). The microhardness, yield strength, compressive strength, ultimate plasticity strain and fracture toughness of the HEA are 518 HV, 1262 MPa, 3228 MPa, 29.1% and 25.2 MPa m(1/2), respectively. The good mechanical properties are mainly contributed to the effective combination of the BCC and the FCC phases. This method has great potential for preparing HEAs in future. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.