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Refractory complex concentrated alloys (RCCAs) show potential as the next-generation structural materials due to their superior strength in extreme environments. However, RCCAs processed by metal additive manufacturing (AM) typically suffer from process-related challenges surrounding laser material interaction defects and microstructure control. Multimodalin situtechniques (synchrotron X-ray imaging and diffraction and infrared imaging) and melt pool-level simulations were employed to understand rapid solidification pathways in two representative RCCAs: (i) multi-phase BCC + HCP Ti_0.4Zr_0.4Nb_0.1Ta_0.1and (ii) single-phase BCC Ti_0.486V_0.375Cr_0.111Ta_0.028. As expected, laser material interaction defects followed similar systematic trends in process parameter space for both alloys. Additionally, both alloys formed a single-phase (BCC) microstructure after rapid solidification processing. However, significant differences in microstructure selection between these alloys were discovered, where Ti_0.4Zr_0.4Nb_0.1Ta_0.1showed a mixture of equiaxed and columnar grains, while Ti_0.486V_0.375Cr_0.111Ta_0.028was dominated by columnar growth. These behaviors were well described by the influence of undercooling effects on columnar-to-equiaxed transition (CET). Distinct microstructure formation in each alloy was verified through CET predictions via analytical melt pool simulations, which showed a ~ 5 × increase degrees in undercooling for Ti_0.4Zr_0.4Nb_0.1Ta_0.1compared to Ti_0.486V_0.375Cr_0.111Ta_0.028. Overall, these results show that microstructure control based on modulating the freezing range must be balanced with process considerations which resist defect formation, such as solidification crack formation in RCCAs.

Graphical abstract

 

Severe lattice distortion is a prominent feature of high-entropy alloys (HEAs) considered a reason for many of those alloys’ properties. Nevertheless, accurate characterizations of lattice distortion are still scarce to only cover a tiny fraction of HEA’s giant composition space due to the expensive experimental or computational costs. Here we present a physics-informed statistical model to efficiently produce high-throughput lattice distortion predictions for refractory non-dilute/high-entropy alloys (RHEAs) in a 10-element composition space. The model offers improved accuracy over conventional methods for fast estimates of lattice distortion by making predictions based on physical properties of interatomic bonding rather than atomic size mismatch of pure elements. The modeling of lattice distortion also implements a predictive model for yield strengths of RHEAs validated by various sets of experimental data. Combining our previous model on intrinsic ductility, a data mining design framework is demonstrated for efficient exploration of strong and ductile single-phase RHEAs.

 

Abstract This work was inspired by new experimental findings where we discovered a two-dimensional (2D) material comprised of titanium-oxide-based one-dimensional (1D) sub-nanometer filaments. Preliminary results suggest that the 2D material contains considerable amounts of carbon, C, in addition to titanium, Ti, and oxygen, O. The aim of this study is to investigate the low-energy, stable atomic forms of 2D titanium carbo-oxides as a function of C content. Via a combination of first-principles calculations and an effective structure sampling scheme, the stable configurations of C-substitutions are comprehensively searched by templating different 2D TiO 2 polymorphs and considering a two O to one C replacement scheme. Among the searched stable configurations, a structure where the (101) planes of anatase bound the top and bottom surfaces with a chemical formula of Ti C 1 / 4 O 3 / 2 was of particularly low energy. Furthermore, the variations in the electronic band structure and chemical bonding environments caused by the high-content C substitution are investigated via additional calculations using a hybrid exchange-correlation functional.