Annealing hardening behaviour of cold rolled Al0.5CoNiCu high-entropy alloy

Abstract

The usually, softening occurs when metals are annealed, while for some special metals or alloys, the abnormal phenomenon of annealing hardening will occur. By means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), metallographic (OM) observation, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and hardness test, the microstructure and hardness of 79% cold rolled Al0.5CrFeCoNiCu high entropy alloy was studied after isothermal annealing for 1 hour at different temperatures, which revealed the cause of annealing induced hardening of the alloy. The results show that the homogenized high-entropy alloy is a face centered cubic (FCC) biphasic structure with close lattice constant. After annealing at 300-750°C, the microhardness of the alloy is higher than that of the cold rolled alloy (399hv); With the increase of annealing temperature, the hardness increased first and then decreased. After annealing at 500 °C for 1 hour, the hardness reached the peak (489hv). XRD phase analysis shows that the alloy will precipitate body centered cubic (BCC) phase when annealed at 500-950°C and precipitate σ phase when annealed at 700-850 °C; In addition, when annealed at 650°C and above, the dislocation recovery speed in FCC phase is accelerated and recrystallization will occur, resulting in rapid softening of the alloy. TEM observation showed that there were L12 nano-precipitates with ordered structure in the FCC phase of the matrix. Therefore, the reason for the hardness peak of the alloy annealed at 500°C is the joint action of dislocation strengthening and precipitation strengthening (L12 and BCC phases).