Spark plasma sintering of tungsten-based WTaVCr refractory high entropy alloys for nuclear fusion applications

W-based WTaVCr refractory high entropy alloys (RHEA) may be novel and promising candidate materials for plasma facing components in the first wall and diverter in fusion reactors. This alloy has been developed by a powder metallurgy process combining mechanical alloying and spark plasma sintering (SPS). The SPSed samples contained two phases, in which the matrix is RHEA with a body-centered cubic structure, while the oxide phase was most likely Ta₂VO₆ through a combined analysis of X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and selected area electron diffraction (SAED). The higher oxygen affinity of Ta and V may explain the preferential formation of their oxide phases based on thermodynamic calculations. Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) revealed an average grain size of 6.2 μm. WTaVCr RHEA showed a peak compressive strength of 2997 MPa at room temperature and much higher micro- and nano-hardness than W and other W-based RHEAs in the literature. Their high Rockwell hardness can be retained to at least 1000°C.