Microstructure and properties of 6FeNiCoSiCrAlTi high-entropy alloy coating prepared by laser cladding

The content of each constituent element in the newly developed high-entropy alloys (HEAs) is always restricted in equimolar or near-equimolar ratio in order to avoid the formation of complex brittle phases during the solidification process. In this study, a 6FeNiCoSiCrAlTi high-entropy alloy coating with simple BCC solid solution phase has been prepared by laser cladding on a low carbon steel substrate. The microstructure, hardness and magnetic properties have been investigated. The experimental results show that the tendency of component segregation in the conventional solidification microstructure of multicomponent alloy is effectively relieved. The microstructure of the coating is mainly composed of equiaxed polygonal grains, discontinuous interdendritic segregation and nano-precipitates. EBSD observation confirms that the polygonal grains and interdendritic segregation have similar BCC structure with lots of low angle grain boundaries at the interface. The microhardness of the coating reaches 780 HV0.5, which is much higher than most of the HEAs prepared by other methods. In addition, the coating shows excellent soft magnetic properties. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.