Tribological and corrosion behaviour of non-equiatomic magnetic FeCoNiMnAl high entropy alloy

Abstract

High entropy alloys (HEAs) have promise as new materials for functional and structural applications. Researchers have focused on fabricating a novel material with improved resistance to wear and corrosion. This study investigates the potential of FeCoNiMn0.25Al0.25 magnetic HEA in tribological and corrosion environments. Since dry sliding is a common mode of wear for many engineering applications. The tribological properties of HEA are investigated under dry conditions under three different normal loads (10 N, 20 N, and 30 N) and three different frequencies (5 Hz, 10 Hz, and 15 Hz) at ambient temperature. Our findings indicate that the coefficient of friction (COF) and specific wear rate (SWR) significantly declined by 8.33 % and 20.71 %, respectively, as the load increased from 10 N to 30 N and the frequency increased from 5 Hz to 15 Hz. Additionally, an ANOVA analysis is performed to understand which process parameters (normal loads and frequencies) affect our response parameters (COF and SWR) the most. The corrosion performance of fabricated HEA is further investigated in three different electrolytes, such as 3.5 wt% NaCl, 1 M HCl, and 1 M NaOH, at room temperature. It is observed that the HEA behaves differently in different electrolytes and exhibits good corrosion resistance (COR) in a sequence of NaOH > NaCl > HCl which is also supported by Nyquist analysis. Furthermore, it has been found that the HEA is seriously corroded in NaCl and HCl electrolytes due to the strong pitting corrosion of Cl- ions.