Enhanced thermal stability and mechanical properties of the nanocrystalline multicomponent Fe-(ZrNbMoTa)x alloys

Thermal stability and mechanical property of the multicomponent nanocrystalline Fe-ZrNbMoTa alloys were investigated. Single-phase nanocrystalline Fe-(ZrNbMoTa)x (x = 0.1, 0.2, 0.5 and 1 at. %) alloys were prepared by ball milling and followed by annealing in a set of predesigned condition. It was found that the Fe-based multicomponent alloys possess good thermal stability through 10 h annealing at 900 degrees C, which is attributed to the thermodynamics effect in the reduction of grain boundary energy caused by multicom-ponent co-segregation of Zr, Nb, Mo and Ta, and kinetics effect related to sluggish diffusion and Zener pinning of a small amount of second-phase precipitation. Additionally, nano-crystalline Fe-(ZrNbMoTa)x alloys show excellent mechanical properties. The hardness is 738.6 HV, and its yield strength and compressive strength reach up to 3100 MPa and 3600 MPa, respectively. These are attributed to the comprehensive effects of nanocrystal-line, solid solution and second phase strengthening.(c) 2022 Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).