Significantly enhanced mechanical properties of NiCoV medium-entropy alloy via precipitation engineering

Precipitation engineering is one of the most effective means to enhance the strength of an alloy, which essentially requires precipitates with certain deformability, fine size, and uniform distribution. However, for multicomponent alloy systems, the chemical complexity poses significant difficulties in applying this strengthening method due to the diversity and brittleness of the potential precipitate phases. In this work, we demonstrated the precipitation engineering in a chemically complex prototype alloy NiCoV. Specifically, formation of detrimental σ, μ and Heusler phases was avoided by reducing the V content, and a two-step short-term annealing was designed to trigger homogeneous κ nucleation while inhibiting its rapid coarsening. It is found that both grain and phase boundaries can trap V atoms, which not only pins these interfaces but also hinders the V partitioning needed for κ growth. Consequently, we achieved an ultrafine κ/γ architecture in the NiCoV_0.9 alloy, which surprisingly exhibited an ultrahigh yield strength of 1.6 GPa and a total work-hardening amount of 219 MPa. Our analysis indicates that the hetero-deformation induced (HDI) stress is mainly responsible for the high strength, while the coherent nature of phase boundaries and decent deformability of κ alleviate stress concentration, giving rise to the pronounced work-hardening. Our work highlights the importance of suitable phase selection and delicate substructure tailoring in precipitation engineering, with key findings also useful for enhancing overall mechanical properties in other multicomponent alloys.