Microstructure and Texture of Cold Rolled and Recrystallized CrNoNi Medium-Entropy Alloy

An equiatomic CrCoNi medium-entropy alloy plate was heavily deformed by conventional cold rolling and subsequently annealed at different temperatures. Microstructure and texture evolution of the deformed and annealed sheets were investigated by electron backscatter diffraction and X-ray diffraction. Heavy cold rolling induces an alloy type a-fibre texture with major brass component. This type of texture is indicative of low stacking fault energy of the CrCoNi alloy. Annealing at 700 degrees C leads to a homogeneously recrystallized microstructure with ultrafine grains of about 800 nm average size. The volume fraction of different texture components is almost similar after annealing at different temperatures. However, the overall texture intensity after annealing is very weak. Finally, in order to understand the microstructure and texture evolution of the CrCoNi alloy, it is critically compared with other low stacking fault energy FCC materials.