Metal-carbide eutectics with multiprincipal elements make superrefractory alloys.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 35857469.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/sciadv.abo2068 and PMC identifier 9269878.
- Licence recorded as CC BY-NC.
- Because redistribution is not established, this page shows the abstract only. Follow the links below for the full text.
Abstract
Materials with excellent high-temperature strength are now sought for applications in hypersonics, fusion reactors, and aerospace technologies. Conventional alloys and eutectic multiprincipal-element alloys (MPEAs) exhibit insufficient strengths at high temperatures due to low melting points and microstructural instabilities. Here, we report a strategy to achieve exceptional high-temperature microstructural stability and strength by introducing eutectic carbide in a refractory MPEA. The synergistic strengthening effects from the multiprincipal-element mixing and strong dislocation blocking at the interwoven metal-carbide interface make the eutectic MPEA not only have outstanding high-temperature strength (>2 GPa at 1473 K) but also alleviate the room-temperature brittleness through microcrack tip blunting by layered metallic phase. This strategy offers a paradigm for the design of the next-generation high-temperature materials to bypass the low-melting point limitation of eutectic alloys and diffusion-dominated softening in conventional superalloys.