The effect of cooling rate on the magnetic properties of Cu-Fe-Ni multicomponent alloys with Al and Si additions

Abstract

The paper explores the structure and magnetic properties of multicomponent high-entropy Al-Cu-Fe-Ni-Si alloys in as-cast and splat-quenched state. This alloy system is characterized by the absence of expensive components, such as Co, V, Mo, Cr, usually used for the production of high-entropy alloys while its characteristics are not inferior to those of more expensive alloys. Components of the studied high-entropy alloys were selected taking into account both criteria for designing and estimating their phase composition, which are available in the literature and based on the calculations of the entropy and enthalpy of mixing, and the difference between atomic radii of components as well. The alloy films were fabricated by a known technique of splat-quenching. A cooling rate estimated by film thickness was ~ 106 K/s. Experimental results reveal that the studied alloys except the Al0.5CuFeNi one are multiphase, with the structure consisting of disordered BCC and FCC solid solutions. The Al0.5CuFeNi alloy has only FCC phase. The leading role in determining the type of solid solution formed in the studied high-entropy films obviously plays an element with the highest melting point. All of the investigated multicomponent films are soft magnetic materials as indicated by low values of coercivity, while most of the as-cast alloys are hard-magnetic.