Phase High-entropy Alloys Research Articles

Microstructure and mechanical properties of novel high-entropy alloy particle reinforced aluminum matrix composites fabricated by selective laser melting

An Al matrix composite reinforced with high-entropy alloy (HEA) particles was successfully fabricated by selective laser melting (SLM). The composite fabricated with optimized parameters exhibits a high strength (901 ± 13 MPa) due to the presence of HEA phases and high dislocation density.

Machine learning-based prediction of phases in high-entropy alloys

“The answer to the question “why HEAs exhibit such exceptional properties” lies in their phases” [1]. The implementation of machine learning (ML) approaches for the classification of solid solution high-entropy alloy (HEA) phases is, therefore, a topical theme in material informatics. For this study, we construct a new dataset based at least 430 peer-reviewed experimental publications including at least 40 metallurgy-specific predictor features. This study proposes a systematic framework incorporating of (a) six feature selection schemes, (b) construction of feature ensembles, and (c) the implementation of eight general ML classifiers. The classifiers, namely: regression tree (DT), linear discriminant analysis (LDA), naїve Bayes (NB), generalized linear regression (GLMNET), random forest (RF), artificial neural networks (NNET), k-nearest neighbors (kNN), and support vector machines (SVM) were trained and evaluated on classifying HEA solid solution phases across feature ensemble sizes. Feature selection results identify the most discriminating predictor features and against intuition, the post-treatment heat-treatment features performed poorly. The RF, SVM, kNN, and NNET classifiers outperformed the other algorithms used with accuracy rates of 97.5%, 95.8%, 94.5%, and 94.0%, respectively. Furthermore, five alloy systems were used to test the validity and applicability of the model - stabilization phases, production of phase transitions, and the triangulation of experimental and ab initio study findings were demonstrated.

Effect of Al and Ni Contents on Anodized Oxide Film and Pitting Corrosion Resistance of Alcocrfeni High-Entropy Alloys

As a new alloy design concept, high-entropy alloys (HEAs) exhibit great mechanical and corrosion resistant properties. In particular, Al-containing HEAs have great potential to develop high corrosion resistant alloys by anodizing. In this research, to investigate the effect of alloy composition on electrochemical properties after anodizing, Al and Ni contents were changed from equimolar AlCoCrFeNi HEA, and Al25Co14Cr10Fe19Ni32 was made. Equimolar CoCrFeMnNi HEA was used as a comparison. Anodizing was performed in 1 M H2SO4, and the compositions of surface oxide films on these alloys were analyzed by Auger electron spectroscopy (AES). The corrosion resistance to pitting was studied by electrochemical polarization in 0.1 M NaCl solution.Equimolar AlCoCrFeNi, Al25Co14Cr10Fe19Ni32, and equimolar CoCrFeMnNi, were fabricated by arc-melting, and melting atmosphere was Ti-gettered high purity argon. The ingot was re-melted at least three times to improve chemical homogeneity. Fabricated ingot was hot-rolled at 1200 ℃ to reduce the thickness to 2 mm, and heat-treatment was then performed by raising the temperature to 1200 ℃ at a rate of 20 ℃/min in 1 h, held at 1200 ℃ for 2 h, and water quenched. The crystal structures were analyzed by X-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD) to ensure whether solid solution structures were formed. Anodizing was done by polarization from -0.55 to 0.5 VSCE, which is in the passivation region, at a scan speed of 23 mV/min in 1 M H2SO4 at 25 ℃. Microstructures of anodized and non-treated samples were observed by an optical microscope and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The depth profiles of the anodized and air-formed passive films were analyzed by AES. In 0.1 M NaCl at 25 ℃, pitting corrosion resistance was investigated by measuring the potentiodynamic polarization curves of samples with and without anodizing. To identify the initiate sites of the pitting corrosion, in situ observations were conducted during electrochemical polarization. The size of the electrode area was approximately 100 μm × 100 μm. Pt was used as the counter electrode, and an Ag wire with AgCl on the tip was used as the reference electrode. The calibration of the reference electrode was made every time before measurements.On the basis of the XRD results and surface images, both equimolar AlCoCrFeNi alloy and Al25Co14Cr10Fe19Ni32 alloy had a duplex structure includes BCC and FCC phases: one is Al and Ni rich; the other is Cr and Fe rich. In Al25Co14Cr10Fe19Ni32 alloy, the area of Al and Ni rich phase is larger than that of Cr and Fe rich phase. The results of AES analysis indicate that the surface oxide layer on the Al and Ni rich phase is slightly thicker than that on the Cr and Fe rich phase in both Al-containing HEAs. However, the morphology after electrochemical polarization tests shows that the Al and Ni rich phase is more readily dissolved in 0.1 M NaCl in both Al-containing HEAs, and this may be the reason why Al25Co14Cr10Fe19Ni32 alloy has a lower pitting potential than equimolar AlCoCrFeNi alloy.From SEM images of Al-containing HEA after anodizing, the Al and Ni rich phase was oxidized comparing to Cr and Fe rich phase. In Al and Ni rich phase, the AES depth profile shows that the concentration of Al and Ni sharply decreased after anodizing. On the other hand, the depth profile of Cr and Fe rich phase did not show much difference even after anodizing. Polarization curves of both alloy after anodizing were measured in 0.1 M NaCl, and there was no pitting observed. In contrast, crevice corrosion occurred between the epoxy covering and base metal. It could be concluded that the pitting corrosion is inhibited by anodizing in 1 M H2SO4 for both equimolar AlCoCrFeNi and Al25Co14Cr10Fe19Ni32 HEAs.

Formation of CuCrCoFeNiO high entropy alloy thin films by rapid thermal processing of Cu/CrNiO/FeCo multilayers

This study presents the synthesis of High Entropy Alloy (HEA) films starting from elemental Cu and binary alloy CoFe and CrNiO multilayers, followed by rapid thermal processing (RTP). By that, the HEA films (HEAFs) were formed by phase formation via short-range and fast diffusion processes. Multilayers with a total thickness of 760 nm consisting of 16 repetitions of a Cu (11 nm)/CrNiO (16.5 nm)/CoFe (20 nm) sequence were annealed at temperatures from 600 °C to 1000 °C for 5 min. The reaction products were then analyzed by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) combined with electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS), in order to identify the phase transformations and elemental distributions. A duplex FCC structure containing CrCoFeNiO HEA and pure Cu phase was successfully synthesized at 600 °C and 800 °C by the solid-state reaction. CuCrCoFeNiO HEA formed within in a Cu nanocrystalline matrix. As the annealing temperature increased, the oxygen content in the films decreased, Both HEA and Cu possess significant 〈111〉 preferred orientation. The HEA phase demonstrated a typical microstructure of alloys with intensive nano-twins. Moreover, the grain growth kinetics of the HEA phase was evaluated, and the activation energy was found to be 185(10) kJ/mol. This is comparable to that of conventional stainless steel (~150 kJ/mol) and less than half of the value for CrCoFeNi bulk (434 kJ/mol). A surface energy-driven grain growth mechanism of the HEAFs via multilayer alloy formation is proposed in this study. The mechanical properties, hardness and Young's modulus, were measured via nanoindentation, and the strengthening mechanism was proposed and compared with current literature.

Interdiffusion, Solubility Limit, and Role of Entropy in FCC Al-Co-Cr-Fe-Ni Alloys

High entropy and sluggish diffusion “core” effects were investigated in an FCC Al-Co-Cr-Fe-Ni alloy by examining the nonequiatomic compositions generated by the concentration profiles within the solid-to-solid diffusion couple, Al48Ni52vs Co25Cr25Fe25Ni25, annealed at 900 °C, 1000 °C, 1100 °C, and 1200 °C. The average effective interdiffusion coefficients of individual components and the maximum solubility limit of Al in nonequiatomic Al-Co-Cr-Fe-Ni alloys were determined as a function of temperature. The magnitudes of the average effective interdiffusion coefficients in Al-Co-Cr-Fe-Ni alloys were compared to the interdiffusion coefficients in relevant ternary and quaternary alloys. The solubility limit of Al in nonequiatomic AlpCoqCrrFesNit alloys was compared to that of Al in equiatomic AlxCoCrFeNi determined from the equilibrium pseudo-binary phase diagram. A reduction in the magnitude of interdiffusion coefficients was not observed for individual components in Al-Co-Cr-Fe-Ni alloys. The maximum solubility of Al in nonequiatomic AlpCoqCrrFesNit alloys was observed to be higher than that in equiatomic AlxCoCrFeNi alloys at a temperature of 1100 °C or above. Correspondingly, the free energy of mixing for nonequiatomic AlpCoqCrrFesNit alloys was determined to be lower than that of equiatomic AlxCoCrFeNi alloys at a temperature of 1100 °C or above. At a temperature of 1100 °C or above, the role of enthalpy of mixing was estimated to be significant in achieving higher thermodynamic stability of the nonequiatomic AlpCoqCrrFesNit alloy than in the equiatomic AlxCoCrFeNi alloy for the compositions corresponding to the highest solubility limit for Al. The compositions of nonequiatomic AlpCoqCrrFesNit alloys were observed to follow the existing empirical rules for the formation of single phase in high entropy alloys (HEAs).

Anomalous effect of lattice misfit on the coarsening behavior of multicomponent L12 phase

The multicomponent L12 phase in high entropy alloys (HEAs) has shown excellent thermal stability. However, the understanding of its intrinsic origins is limited to the Lifshitz-Slyozov-Wagner (LSW) theory. In the present study, we investigate the influence of lattice misfit, which is not considered in LSW theory, on the coarsening kinetics of the multicomponent L12 phase. Different from that in most traditional alloys, the coarsening constant of multicomponent L12 particles decreases with the increasing lattice misfit in HEAs. This finding provides a new view for understanding the sluggish coarsening kinetics of L12 phase in HEAs.

Effects of annealing temperature and cooling medium on the microstructure and mechanical properties of a novel dual phase high entropy alloy

Effects of annealing temperature and cooling medium on the hexagonal close-packed (HCP) phase fraction and mechanical properties of a novel Co35Cr25Fe37.5Ni2.5 alloy are investigated. The uniformly initial grain size and different HCP phase fractions are obtained via the same annealing temperature and different cooling mediums. The HCP phase area fraction is doubled as the cooling medium of water is replaced by liquid nitrogen, and the main reason is the rapid increase of nucleation sites of liquid nitrogen cooling. HCP laminates with different orientations intersect within grains. The yield strength and ultimate tensile strength of Co35Cr25Fe37.5Ni2.5 alloys annealing at 900 °C with liquid nitrogen quenching are ~482 MPa and ~1079 MPa, respectively. Contributions of the FCC phase and HCP phase to yield strength are discussed. The results indicate the combination of annealing temperature and cooling medium is an efficient manipulation method to adjust the HCP phase fraction and mechanical properties of dual phase high entropy alloy.

Nanostructured AlNiCoFeCrTi high-entropy coating performed by cold spray

In this work, solid-state mechanical alloying (MA) and cold spraying (CS) processes were applied to fabricate powder AlNiCoFeCrTi high-entropy alloy (HEA) and then to produce HE coatings on steel substrate. Shot-time MA for 3 h has been employed to synthesize nanostructured equiatomic AlNiCoFeCrTi HEA of metastable supersaturated substitutional solid solution with bcc crystal structure. Although alloying is not complete at this shot milling time, it goes to completion during thermal annealing to achieve the alloy formation. XRD study on mechanically alloyed high-entropy AlNiCoFeCrTi alloy after thermal annealing at 1200 °C for 1 h revealed the formation of a three-phase structure consisting of ordered bcc phase with fine precipitates of intermetallic σ-phase (FeCr) and titanium carbide TiC. The powder agglomerates resulted from annealing were grinded in a ball mill for 1 h. Nanostructured disordered bcc solid solution, TiC and σ-phases are noticed after milling. Coatings of 450 μm in mean thickness were deposited by the CS process using an air like a working gas, temperature and pressure of 450 °C and 0.9 MPa, respectively. The experimental results confirm that CS process can be used to produce HE coatings with low porosity. As a low-temperature deposition process, CS completely retained the HEA phase composition and nanostructure in the coating without any phase transformation. The AlFeNiCoCrTi HE coatings exhibit 10.3 ± 0.3 GPa in Vickers hardness.

Progress in Understanding the Origins of Excellent Corrosion Resistance in Metallic Alloys: From Binary Polycrystalline Alloys to Metallic Glasses and High Entropy Alloys

Some of the factors responsible for good corrosion resistance of select polycrystalline and emerging alloys in chloride solutions are discussed with a goal of providing some perspectives on the current status and future directions. Traditional metallic glass alloys, single phase high entropy alloys (HEAs), early metallic glasses, and high entropy metallic glasses are all emerging corrosion-resistant alloys (CRAs) that utilize traditional strategies for improved corrosion resistance as well as take advantage of some other novel beneficial attributes. These materials enjoy many degrees of freedom as far as choice of both composition and structure, providing great flexibility in the pursuit of superior corrosion resistance. The new materials depart from classical solvent-solute type polycrystalline binary or ternary alloys. Thus, such emerging materials provide significant opportunities to achieve even greater improvements in corrosion resistance in harsh environments. Several examples of the unique corrosion properties of selected materials in the context of modern theories of corrosion are discussed herein. Discussion is restricted to solid-solution binary or ternary polycrystalline alloys, several metallic glass alloys, and single phase HEAs. A common feature of many CRAs is that composition and microstructure often affect both passivity and resistance to localized corrosion that can be divided into initiation, stabilization, and propagation stages. Enormous complexities in protective oxide structures and chemistries and the large number of combinatorial possibilities in newer materials such as HEAs preclude trial-and-error approaches and perhaps even combinatorial experimental design. Computational materials methodologies will be required in the search for new corrosion-resistant alloys in these material classes. The search must consider the best scientific insights available regarding how major and minor alloy additions, as well as various microstructural attributes, contribute to corrosion mitigation. Additional scientific insights, as they emerge, will enable choices beyond the reliance on high concentrations of alloying elements that are known to affect passivity breakdown and pit stabilization. A challenge is to connect the “basic attributes” of an alloy with its properties. The strength of this connection will likely require new scientific principles enabling deep multiphysics insights in order to link feature(s) such as composition and metallurgical phases to the desired corrosion properties. Application of data informatics will likely also play a role given the plethora of variables that are important in corrosion and the difficulty in assessing all relationships. The opportunity exists to accelerate the design of emerging materials for high corrosion resistance.

Enhancing mechanical properties of Al0.25CoCrFeNi high-entropy alloy via cold rolling and subsequent annealing

The influence of simple thermo-mechanical processing such as cold rolling and subsequent annealing on the microstructure and mechanical properties of the single phase Al0·25CoCrFeNi high-entropy alloy is systematically investigated. Experimental results obtained from ten different processing parameters indicate that the microstructure and mechanical properties of the alloy can be comprehensively tuned in a wide range. The grain size can be reduced from hundreds of micrometer size to several tens micrometer size, and the yield and tensile strength can be enhanced from 173 MPa to 425 MPa–1050 MPa and 1160 MPa, respectively, while the alloy still owns large tensile ductility above 10%. Based on detailed microstructure analysis, the strength mechanism is shown to be related with both the refined grain size, nanoscale precipitation in the grain boundaries and recrystallized grains. This research shows that with simple multistep cold rolling and annealing, the mechanical properties of face-centered-cubic single phase high-entropy alloy can be highly tailored for different engineering applications.

Transformation-enhanced strength and ductility in a FeCoCrNiMn dual phase high-entropy alloy

High-entropy alloys (HEAs) are considered as promising structural materials. Usually, HEAs with face-centered cubic (FCC) structure exhibit excellent ductility but low strength, while HEAs with body-centered cubic (BCC) structure indicate relatively high fracture strength and low ductility. In this paper, a new transformable FeCoCrNiMn HEA with dual FCC and BCC phases is prepared. Under tensile loading, this HEA undergoes strong strain-hardening, exhibiting low yield strength, high ultimate tensile strength and large tensile elongation. This HEA can maintain stable plastic deformation in a wide strain region with a high constant normalized strain hardening rate, which is far different from the continuous decrease of that for the famous Cantor HEA. The strong strain-hardening capability and large tensile ductility of this HEA can be attributed to the strain-induced FCC-BCC transformation.

The effect of TiC addition on the microstructure and mechanical properties of Al0.6CrFe2Ni2 high entropy alloys

To enhance the strength of single FCC phase high entropy alloys, TiC was selected as reinforced phase to improve the properties of high entropy alloys (HEAs). Therefore, a series of TiC/Al0.6CrFe2Ni2 high entropy alloys with different TiC content which ranging from 0 to 5 vol% were prepared by vacuum arc melting furnace. The phase compositions, microstructures and mechanical properties of alloys were investigated detailedly. The results show that TiC has no effect on phase composition of the alloys, but the addition of ceramic phase TiC has an advantageous effect on the mechanical properties of alloys, the yield strength of TiC/Al0.6CrFe2Ni2 HEAs increases due to the refined of grain size, when TiC content is 2.50 vol%, alloy has better properties, the yield strength and Vickers hardness are 576.93 MPa and 244 HV, respectively.

Anomalous Effect of Lattice Misfit on the Coarsening Behavior of Multicomponent L12 Phase

The multicomponent L12 phase in high entropy alloys (HEAs) has shown excellent thermal stability, but understandings on its intrinsic origins are limited to the Lifshitz-Slyozov-Wagner (LSW) theories. In the present study, we investigated the influence of lattice misfit, which is not considered in LSW theory, on the coarsening kinetics of the multicomponent L12 phase. Different from those in most traditional alloys, the coarsening constants of multicomponent L12 particles decrease with the increasing lattice misfit in HEAs. This finding provides a new view for understanding the sluggish coarsening kinetics of L12 phase in HEAs.

Structural damage and phase stability of Al0.3CoCrFeNi high entropy alloy under high temperature ion irradiation

An initially single phase high entropy alloy (HEA) Al0.3CoCrFeNi was irradiated by 3 MeV Au ions to a fluence of 6 × 1015 cm−2 (∼31 dpa at damage peak) at four different temperatures ranging from 250 °C to 650 °C. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Atom probe tomography (APT) were employed to study the evolution of structural damage and phase stability with irradiation temperature. Al0.3CoCrFeNi exhibited a similar evolution of irradiation-induced defects with temperature as compared with conventional FCC alloys. At 250 °C and 350 °C, most of the visible irradiation-induced defects were faulted 1/3〈111〉 dislocation loops. As the irradiation temperature increased to 500 °C, perfect 1/2〈110〉 dislocation loops were observed along with the faulted loops. At the highest irradiation temperature 650 °C, only dislocation lines and networks could be observed. Regarding phase stability, the 3 MeV Au irradiation was observed to suppress the precipitation of (Ni, Al)-enriched nano clusters and the L12 ordered structure at irradiation temperatures 250 °C to 500 °C whereas precipitation of the B2 ordered structure was accelerated at 650 °C. This resulted in qualitatively opposite precipitation behavior between the ion irradiated damage region and unirradiated region at 500 °C and 650 °C. The opposite phase stability of the ion-irradiated damage region and unirradiated region at different temperatures is attributed to the competing effects of ballistic dissolution vs irradiation enhanced diffusion on precipitation.

Radiation damage tolerance of a novel metastable refractory high entropy alloy V2.5Cr1.2WMoCo0.04

A novel multicomponent alloy, V2.5Cr1.2WMoCo0.04, produced from elements expected to favour a BCC crystal structure, and to be suitable for high temperature environments, was fabricated by arc melting and found to exhibit a multiphase dendritic microstructure with W-rich dendrites and V–Cr segregated to the inter-dendritic cores. The as-cast alloy displayed an apparent single-phase XRD pattern. Following heat treatment at 1187 °C for 500 h the alloy transformed into three different distinct phases - BCC, orthorhombic, and tetragonal in crystal structure. This attests to the BCC crystal structure observed in the as-cast state being metastable. The radiation damage response was investigated through room temperature 5 MeV Au+ ion irradiation studies. Metastable as-cast V2.5Cr1.2WMoCo0.04 shows good resistance to radiation induced damage up to 40 displacements per atom (dpa). 96 wt% of the as-cast single-phase BCC crystal structure remained intact, as exhibited by grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GI-XRD) patterns, whilst the remainder of the alloy transformed into an additional BCC crystal structure with a similar lattice parameter. The exceptional phase stability seen here is attributed to a combination of self-healing processes and the BCC structure, rather than a high configurational entropy, as has been suggested for some of these multicomponent “High Entropy Alloy” types. The importance of the stability of metastable high entropy alloy phases for behaviour under irradiation is for the first time highlighted and the findings thus challenge the current understanding of phase stability after irradiation of systems like the HEAs.

Phase stabilities of high entropy alloys

A perturbation model is used to evaluate the phase stabilities of high entropy alloys. The calculation results can successfully predict the phase stabilities of many high entropy alloys and shows that stable single phase high entropy alloys are rare. The effect of increased entropy cannot balance the fast-increased driving force for the formation of intermetallics. As the temperature increases, the stabilities of solid solutions will increase and the portion of single-phase alloys will expand. The model we propose provides a new paradigm to understand the phase stabilities of high entropy alloys.

Formation and stability of C14 type Laves phase in multi component high-entropy alloys

The present investigation reports the formation and stability of multi-component AB2-type Laves phase in Ti–Zr–Ni (V, Cr, Fe, Mn, Co)ternary to octonary alloys system. To probe the formation and stability of AB2-type Laves phase in high-entropy alloys, a series of multi-component alloys have been synthesized via melting under protective Ar atmosphere and subsequent annealing at 525 K for 40 h. Systematic investigation has been carried out to understand phase stability using both thermodynamic and parametric approaches. X-ray diffraction measurement and Rietveld analysis indicate the formation of C14 Laves phase in multi-component alloys. The enthalpy of mixing (ΔHmix), size difference (δ) and valence electron concentrations (VEC) have been found to play stellar role in controlling the formation of multi-component Laves phase in these alloys. The valence electron concentrations and electrons per atom ratio (e/a) dictate the choice of elements for the stabilization of Laves phase in these high-entropy alloys.

High strain rate compression behaviour of single phase CoCuFeMnNi high entropy alloy

Deformation behaviour of FCC CoCuFeMnNi single phase high entropy alloy (HEA) was studied under quasistatic and dynamic loading conditions in compression at strain rate of 0.001 s−1 and 3000 s−1 using screw driven universal testing machine and split Hopkinson pressure bar respectively. A detailed microstructural characterization was carried out using electron back scatter diffraction (EBSD) while bulk texture measurement was carried out using X-ray diffraction. The high strain rate deformed sample shows high strain rate hardening as well as higher strain hardening that is attributed to operation of deformation twinning as observed from EBSD. The operation of deformation twinning and multiple slip systems leads to grain fragmentation and weakening of characteristic <101> compression texture in sample subjected to high strain rate. Constitutive behaviour of the CoCuFeMnNi HEA explained using the Johnson-Cook model further justifies better strain rate and strain hardening response of the alloy compared to individual elements.

Machine Learning Based Prediction of Phases in High-Entropy Alloys

Intro: The vastness of high-entropy alloys (HEAs) compositional space and breadth of microstructures makes it possible to tailor properties required by an application. Predicting the phase formation is therefore important in the design of future HEAs. Machine learning based studies on high-entropy alloys are still relatively scarce and non-standardized. Objectives: this paper reports on the implementation of ML-based classifiers techniques compares the performance of Decision Tree (DT) and Random Forest (RF) for the prediction of phase formation in HEAs. Results: A new dataset based on 1460 microstructural observations collected from 418 peer-reviewed studies was curated. It contains 36 metallurgy-specific predictor features and a dependent variable, which referred to the phase formation. Based on recursive feature-elimination algorithm an expansive collection of predictive feature for future studies is proposed in addition to widely employed features such difference in the electro-negativities (Δχ) and atomic size (δ), valence electron concentration (VEC), mixing enthalpy (ΔHm), and configuration entropy (ΔSm). The RF model yields higher discriminative performance compared to the DT classifier as well as other tree-based benchmark models. The RF model should be the first choice for investigators when building classification. All models shows lower classification accuracy when intermetallic compounds. Summary: These results suggest classic machine learning algorithms may be sufficient to develop high quality predictive models of phase formation in HEAs.

Computational Approach to Predict Phase Fraction in Dual-Phase High Entropy Alloys

Type and fraction of secondary phase play a significant role in determining the properties. For the first time, a computational method is used to predict the phase fraction in dual phase high entropy alloy systems. In this work, a new parameter δc(critical lattice distortion) is proposed. Valence electron concentration (VEC) and δc are used to predict phase fraction. To validate the model a series of AlxCoCrFeNi (x=0.3, 0.5, 0.7) alloy was synthesized by vacuum arc melting and analysed using x-ray diffraction and electron backscatter diffraction techniques. It is found that the experimental results agree closely with the predicted value.