@article{11b0daeeeefa4bebbe8d7090f986e784,
title = "The effect of submicron grain size on thermal stability and mechanical properties of high-entropy carbide ceramics",
abstract = "(Hf0.2Zr0.2Ta0.2Nb0.2Ti0.2)C high-entropy ceramics (HEC) with a submicron grain size of 400 to 600 nm were fabricated by spark plasma sintering using a two-step sintering process. Both X-ray and neutron diffractions confirmed the formation of single-phase with rock salt structure in the as-fabricated (Hf0.2Zr0.2Ta0.2Nb0.2Ti0.2)C samples. The effect of submicron grain size on the thermal stability and mechanical properties of HEC was investigated. The grain growth kinetics in the fine-grained HEC was small at 1300 and 1600°C, suggesting high thermal stability that was possibly related to the compositional complexity and sluggish diffusion in HEC. Compared to the coarse-grain HEC with a grain size of 16.5 µm, the bending strength and fracture toughness of fine-grained HEC were 25% and 20% higher respectively. The improvement of mechanical properties in fine-grained HEC may be attributed to micromechanistic mechanisms such as crack deflection.",
keywords = "grain size, high-entropy ceramics, mechanical properties, spark plasma sintering, thermal stability",
author = "Fei Wang and Xiang Zhang and Xueliang Yan and Yongfeng Lu and Michael Nastasi and Yan Chen and Bai Cui",
note = "Funding Information: B. Cui gratefully acknowledges the financial support from the Nebraska Public Power District through the Nebraska Center for Energy Sciences Research and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Faculty Development Grant (No. 31310018M0045). Manufacturing and characterization analyses were performed at the NanoEngineering Research Core Facility (part of the Nebraska Nanoscale Facility), which is partially funded from the Nebraska Research Initiative. The research was performed in part in the Nebraska Nanoscale Facility: National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure and the Nebraska Center for Materials and Nanoscience, which are supported by the National Science Foundation under Award ECCS:1542182, and the Nebraska Research Initiative. Neutron diffraction work was carried out at the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), which is the US Department of Energy (DOE) user facility at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, sponsored by the Scientific User Facilities Division, Office of Basic Energy Sciences. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2020 The American Ceramic Society",
year = "2020",
month = aug,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1111/jace.17103",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "103",
pages = "4463--4472",
journal = "Journal of the American Ceramic Society",
issn = "0002-7820",
publisher = "Wiley-Blackwell",
number = "8",
}