Effect of alloying order on non-isothermal sintering kinetics of mechanically alloyed high entropy alloy powders

This work correlates the densification behaviors of high entropy alloy powders with the alloying order. Mechanically alloyed powders (CoFeNi, CoFeNiCr, CoFeNiCrMn and CoFeNiCrMnAl alloys) were non-isothermally sintered using dilatometer. It was demonstrated that when the alloying order or the number of alloying elements were increased from 3 elements to 6 elements, sintering kinetics were changed. Materials exhibit sluggish grain growth, reducing densification rates and increasing activation energies of sintering, with increasing configurational entropy. Increasing trend of micro-hardness also indicates the better mechanical properties of such alloys. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.