Substructure boundary's enhancing strain hardening ability in additively manufactured 0.75 at%C doping NiCoCr medium entropy alloy

In this study, the effect of post heat treatment on microstructural evolution and tensile properties of 0.75% of carbon doped NiCoCr MEA alloy manufactured by laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) was investigated. The post heat treatment of LPBF-built 0.75C MEA alloy was selected and carried out at 700 °C for 1hr, respectively. The microstructural observation in heat-treated 0.75C MEA HT sample shows a lower stacking fault energy (SFE) with wider stacking fault width (SFW) compared to as-built condition. In-situ nano-sized precipitates are formed along the sub-boundaries of the as₋built 0.75C MEA and 0.75C MEA HT samples which are estimated as 1.25 % and 2.45 %, respectively. After post heat treatment process, the size and ratio of nano-sized precipitates enhanced and identified as Cr-rich M₂₃C₆ carbide. Subsequently, the yield and tensile strengths increase from 823.2 MPa to 872.7 MPa and 1.05 GPa–1.15 GPa for 0.75C MEA and 0.75C MEA HT conditions, respectively which is attributed to the prevailing solid solution strengthening and precipitation strengthening. The deformation twins in as−built specimen are transformed to twin bundle once the local strain increases from 5% to 20%. The 0.75C MEA HT deformed specimen exhibits high dislocation accumulation with retained stable substructure in local strain 20% area due to the pinning effect of nano-sized precipitates which stabilizes and strengthens the substructure boundary i.e., Dynamic Hall-Petch mechanism. These results provide a new perception for achieving better strength performance by post heat treatment process for NiCoCr-based medium entropy alloys (MEA) alloy.