Laves Phase Formation in High Entropy Alloys

Abstract

One of the intriguing recent results in the field of high-entropy alloys is the discovery of single-phase equiatomic multi-component Laves intermetallics. However, there is no clear understanding that a combination of chemical elements will form such high-entropy compounds. Here we contribute to understanding this issue by modifying the composition of duodenary TiZrHfN-bVCrMoMnFeCoNiAl (12x) alloy in which we recently reported the fabrication of hexagonal C14 Laves phase. We consider three alloys based on 12x: 7x = 12x-VCrMoMnFe, 12x + Sc, 12x + Be and observe that all of them crystalize with the formation of C14 Laves phase as a dominant structure. We report that 12x + Be alloy reveals a single-phase C14 structure with a very high concentration of structural defects and ultra-fine dendritic microstructure with an almost homogenous distribution of the constituted elements over the alloy matrix. The analysis of electrical and magnetic properties reveals that the Laves phases are Curie-Weiss paramagnets, which demonstrate metallic conduction; 7x and 12x alloys also reveal a pronounced Kondo-like anomaly. Analysis of experimental data as well as ab initio calculations suggest that chemical complexity and compositional disorder cause strong s-d band scattering and thus the rather high density of d-states in the conduction band. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.