Atomic scale structure dominated FCC and B2 responses to He ion irradiation in eutectic high-entropy alloy AlCoCrFeNi2.1

doi:10.1016/j.jmst.2022.04.023

Abstract

Abstract:

Radiation-tolerant materials are widely desired in nuclear reactors. High-entropy alloys (HEAs) exhibiting superior mechanical performance and swelling tolerance are being considered as next-generation nuclear structural materials. However, an understanding of HEAs irradiation tolerance at an atomic scale is still lacking. In this study, the atomic scale irradiation response of AlCoCrFeNi_2.1, composed of face-centered cubic (FCC) phase and B2 phase, has been systematically investigated at 298 and 723 K. The bubble volume ratio of the B2 phase is much larger than that of the FCC phase under the same irradiation conditions, and hence, the FCC phase has superior swelling tolerance than the B2 phase. Also, order-disorder transformation occurred in both L1₂ and B2 phases. The different irradiation responses between the FCC and B2 phases, depend firstly on composition and secondly on crystal structure. The higher compositional complexity and complicated atomic-level lattice environment of the FCC phase contribute to better radiation performance than B2 phase. The results pave a way for exploring radiation-tolerant structural high-entropy alloys.

Key words: High-entropy alloy, AlCoCrFeNi_2.1, He ion irradiation, Radiation tolerance, Electron microscopy

Jingyu Pang, Ting Xiong, Wenfan Yang, Hualong Ge, Xiaodong Zheng, Miao Song, Hongwei Zhang, Shijian Zheng. Atomic scale structure dominated FCC and B2 responses to He ion irradiation in eutectic high-entropy alloy AlCoCrFeNi_2.1[J]. J. Mater. Sci. Technol., 2022, 129: 87-95.

Figures/Tables 11

Fig. 1. (a) SRIM simulation of He ion irradiation damage and He concentration with depth for FCC and B2 phases in AlCoCrFeNi2.1. Micron-scale TEM images of irradiated samples at (b) 298 K and (c) 723 K.

Table 1. Chemical composition (at.%) of as-cast eutectic AlCoCrFeNi2.1 HEA at different phases.

Phases	Al	Co	Cr	Fe	Ni
Nominal	16.39	16.39	16.39	16.39	34.42
FCC	9.04	19.41	20.77	18.53	32.23
B2	27.56	13.24	5.55	10.21	43.42

Fig. 2. Focused cross-section TEM images of AlCoCrFeNi2.1 samples irradiated by He ions at 298 K: (a) FCC phase, (b) B2 phase; at 723 K: (c) FCC phase, (d) B2 phase. Bubble concentration region is the area between the yellow dashed lines (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.).

Fig. 3. Cross-section (a) TEM and HR-STEM images of (b) FCC and (c) B2 irradiated by He ions at 298 K; (d) He bubble size distribution in FCC and B2 phases at 298 K irradiation.

Table 2. The average bubble size (ABS) and bubble volume ratio between B2 and FCC (BVRB2/BVRFCC) after 298 K and 723 K irradiation.

Irradiation temperature	Phase	ABS (nm)	BVR_B2/ BVR_FCC
298 K	FCC	1.21 ± 0.21	2.76 ± 0.51
	B2	2.38 ± 0.50	2.76 ± 0.51
723 K	FCC	3.00 ± 1.01	2.70 ± 0.68
	B2	5.99 ± 1.26	2.70 ± 0.68

Fig. 4. Cross-section (a) TEM and HR-STEM images of (b) FCC and (c) B2 irradiated by He ions at 723 K; (d) He bubble size distribution in FCC and B2 phases at 723 K irradiation.

Fig. 5. Electron diffraction patterns (EDPs) of FCC (top row) and B2 phases (bottom row) before and after irradiation; (a) unirradiated, (b) 298 K irradiated, (c) 723 K irradiated of FCC phase; and (d) unirradiated, (e) 298 K irradiated, (f) 723 K irradiated of B2 phase. Red indices represent the superlattice spots.

Fig. 6. Dark-field TEM images of L12 phases in FCC for: (a) unirradiated, (b) 298 K irradiated, and (c) 723 K irradiated. The bright contrast points are the L12 particles. The red circles represent the selected area of the objective aperture, with the superlattice spots.

Fig. 7. IFFT mode of HR-HAADF-STEM images for FCC and B2 phases after irradiation: (a) FCC phase after 298 K irradiation, (b) B2 phase after 298 K irradiation, (c) FCC phase after 723 K irradiation, (d) B2 phase after 723 K irradiation. The dark spaces in the images are He bubbles after irradiation.

Fig. 8. Inverted and auto-correlated EDPs and relative order degree profiles of the B2 phase when: (a, d) unirradiated, (b, e) 298 K irradiated and (c, f) 723 K irradiated.

Fig. 9. EDS maps of B2 phase showing the distribution of Al, Co, Cr, Fe, Ni. (a) unirradiated, (b) 298 K irradiated, and (c) 723 K irradiated. The EDS analysis focused on bubble concentration regions.

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