Microwave-Assisted Preparation Of Multi Principal Element Alloys By Powder Metallurgy Approach

According to literature, the synthetic route to produce High entropy alloys (HEAs) should guarantee short alloying time, efficient cooling and capability to operate in controlled atmosphere. Such conditions can be achieved using high frequency electromagnetic fields, like microwave heating. Microwave assisted combustion synthesis of pure metal powders mixtures as reactants has already been used during the last decade by the authors to prepare intemetallics, functionally graded materials and, more recently, high entropy alloys  

In this work FeCoNiCrAl and FeCoNiCuAl, both equiatomic and reinforced by the 10% wt. of SiC were prepared by microwave assisted techniques. Results show that direct microwave heating at 2450 MHz of the powder precursors occurs, until the ignition conditions are reached. The temperature and duration of the microwave-assisted process result much lower than other conventional powder metallurgy routes, but at the cost of a higher residual porosity. Sample characterization confirmed that the powder metallurgy approach is suitable to retain the shape of the load imparted during