Single-step electrochemical synthesis of nano-crystalline CoCrFeNi high-entropy alloy powder

The difficulty of producing high-entropy alloy (HEA) powders is one of the key issues that limits the application of HEAs in a range of fields, including energy devices, additive manufacturing and spraying techniques. In the present work, nano-size equiatomic CoCrFeNi HEA powder has been prepared from micro-size mixed metal-oxide precursors by electro-deoxidation in molten CaCl2-NaCl at 923 K. The HEA powder obtained had a single-phase face-centered cubic structure with a lattice constant of 3.571 angstrom, and was of a powdery morphology with spherical particles in the size range of 40-200 nm. The composition achieved was close to the nominal one and no contamination was detected. Altogether, this study has demonstrated that, with suitably adjusted process pa-rameters, electro-deoxidation is an effective method of producing nano-size HEA powders.

Automated summary

In this study, nano-size equiatomic CoCrFeNi HEA powder was successfully prepared by electro-deoxidation method, which showed a well-formed crystal structure and accurate composition, providing an effective approach for the production of high-entropy alloy powders.