Influence of Cu and Si on the microstructure and properties of CoCrFeNiCu1-xSix alloys

Abstract

The effect of Cu and Si on the microstructure and properties of CoCrFeNiCu1-xSix alloys (x = 0, 0.2, 0.5, 0.8 and 1) was studied in this work. The results indicate that as the x value increased from 0 to 1, the phase compositions of CoCrFeNiCu1-xSix alloys evolved from FCC + Cu-rich phases to FCC + Cu-rich + NiSi-rich phases to FCC + BCC + NiSi-rich phases. Therefore, the decrease in Cu content led to the decreasing Cu-rich phase content, whereas Si addition not only favored the formation of intermetallic compounds, but also promoted the phase transition from FCC to BCC. Due to the competition between BCC phase suppressing corrosion and Cu-rich + NiSi-rich phases inducing galvanic corrosion, the corrosion resistance of CoCrFeNiCu1-xSix alloys improved with the increasing x value. The microstructure change also resulted in an improvement in hardness and wear resistance, and a deterioration in fracture toughness of CoCrFeNiCu1-xSix alloys. Moreover, the main wear mechanism evolved from adhesive wear and abrasive wear to slight abrasive wear. Comparison among five alloys indicates that Cu0.2Si0.8 alloy exhibited the excellent comprehensive properties, revealed by the corrosion current density of 4.81 × 10−8 A/cm2, the hardness value of 510.5 HV, the fracture toughness of 8.57 MPa·m1/2 and the wear rate of 0.88 mm3·N−1 · m−1.