Microstructure and solidification behaviour of CuNiSiAl eutectic multi-principal element alloy

Abstract

Eutectic multi-principal element alloys show great promise due to their exceptional castability, unique near-equilibrium microstructure, and controllability. In this study, a novel copper-containing Cu_42.3Ni₃₀Si₁₅Al_12.7 eutectic multi-principal element alloy was designed and investigated. The microstructure of the alloy is composed of primary phase Ni₂Si and eutectic phase (FCC(Cu) + BCC(NiAl)). The eutectic reaction temperature is 1004°C. Understanding the solidification process is crucial for optimising solidification parameters and subsequent annealing. The as-cast Cu_42.3Ni₃₀Si₁₅Al_12.7 alloy exhibits high micro-hardness (400 ± 2.4 HV) and compressive fracture strength (1511 MPa)

KEYWORDS:

• Metals and alloys
• copper alloys
• eutectic medium entropy alloys
• phase transformation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Natural Science Foundation for Young Scholars of Jiangsu Province [Grant No. BK20220628], Scientific Research Foundation of Jiangsu Provincial Education Department [Grant No. 21KJB430012], Changzhou Sci&Tech programme Sci&Tech programme [Grant No. GJ20220153], National Natural Science Foundation for Young Scholars of China [Grant No. 52001063], Natural Science Foundation for Young Scholars of Jiangsu Province [Grant No. BK20200387], and Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Light Metal Alloys [Grant No. LMA202201] and State Key Programme of National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant No. 52231005].