High-density nanoprecipitates and phase reversion via maraging enable ultrastrong yet strain-hardenable medium-entropy alloy

Kwon, H.*; Sathiyamoorthi, P.*; Gangaraju, M. K.*; Zargaran, A.*; Wang, J.*; Heo, Y.-U.*; Harjo, S.; Gong, W.; Lee, B.-J.*; Kim, H. S.*

Acta Materialia, 248, p.118810_1 - 118810_12, 2023/04

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2023.118810

Maraging steels, known for ultrahigh strength and good fracture toughness, derive their superior properties from lath martensite structure with high-density nanoprecipitates. In this work, we designed a novel Fe-based medium-entropy alloy with a chemical composition of FeCoNiMo in atomic% by utilizing the characteristics of the maraging steels. By a single-step aging of only 10 min at 650 C, the alloy showed microstructures consisting of a very high number density of (Fe, Co, Ni)Mo-type nanoprecipitates in lath martensite structure and reverted FCC phase, which led to ultrahigh yield strength higher than 2 GPa. This work demonstrates a novel direction to produce strong and ductile materials by expanding the horizons of material design with the aid of high-entropy concept and overcoming the limits of conventional materials.