Effect of Co-content on microstructure, phases, and mechanical properties of laser additive manufactured Cox(CrNi)100-x alloy

Abstract

This study describes the combination of mechanical properties of the CoCrNi medium entropy alloy system by tailoring its non-equiatomic compositions. The Laser Directed Energy Deposition (LDED) based Additive Manufacturing (AM) technique is deployed to fabricate the Cox(CrNi)100-x (x=40, 50, 60) alloy system. All compositions exhibit the formation of solidification substructures, with the refinement of subgrain size correlated with an increase in Co-content. The Co40 alloy exhibited a single-phase FCC structure, while Co50 (3.1 % ε-martensite) and Co60 (53.6 % ε-martensite) exhibited dual FCC+HCP structure during deposition. The combined effect of dislocation slip, deformation twinning, and deformation-induced HCP ε-martensite transformation strengthened the Co40 alloy during deformation. However, the Transformation-Induced Plasticity effect (TRIP) resulted in greater HCP ε-martensite transformation during deformation. Due to limited slip systems in the HCP structure, the Co60 alloy showed lower strength. The TRIP effect is highly dominant in Co60 alloy due to the prevalent HCP phase fraction in the initial samples. This led to stress concentration at FCC grain boundaries and ε-martensite, resulting in early failure of the alloy. With the increase in Co-content, the deformation mechanism changed from dislocation slip to deformation twinning to HCP ε-martensitic transformation. The LDED-built Cox(CrNi)100-x alloy system showed a good combination of strength and ductility. The study suggests that additive manufacturing is an easier and more suitable technique for obtaining compositions with the desired combination of mechanical properties.