Exceptional resistance to grain growth in nanocrystalline CoCrFeNi high entropy alloy at high homologous temperatures

Nanocrystalline CoCrFeNi high entropy alloy, synthesized by mechanical alloying followed by spark plasma sintering, demonstrated extremely sluggish grain growth even at very high homologous temperature of 0.68 Tm (900 °C) for annealing duration of 600 h. Mechanically alloyed powder had carbon and oxygen as impurities, which in turn led to the formation of two-phase mixture of FCC and Cr-rich carbide with fine distribution of Cr-rich oxide during spark plasma sintering. Sluggish grain growth is attributed to the Zener pinning effect from the fine dispersion of oxide, mutual retardation of grain boundaries in the presence of two phases, and sluggish diffusivity because of cooperative diffusion of multi-principle elements.