Dissolving and stabilizing soft WB2 and MoB2 phases into high-entropy borides via boron-metals reactive sintering to attain higher hardness

Five single-phase WB2- and MoB2-containing high-entropy borides (HEBs) have been made via reactive spark plasma sintering of elemental boron and metals. A large reactive driving force enables the full dissolution of 10 - 20 mol. % WB2 to form dense, single-phase HEBs, including (Ti0.2Zr0.2Hf0.2Mo0.2W0.2)B-2, (Ti0.2Ta0.2Cr0.2Mo0.2W0.2)B-2, (Zr0.2Hf0.2Nb0.2Ta0.2W0.2)B-2, and (Zr0.225Hf0.225Ta0.225Mo0.225W0.1)B-2; the successful fabrication of such single-phase WB2-containing HEBs has not been reported before. In the processing science, this result serves perhaps the best example demonstrating that the phase formation in high-entropy ceramics can strongly depend on the kinetic route. A scientifically interesting finding is that HEBs containing softer WB2 and/or MoB2 components are significantly harder than (Ti0.2Zr0.2Hf0.2Nb0.2Ta0.2)B-2 (with harder binary boride components). This exemplifies that high-entropy ceramics can achieve unexpected properties.