IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v592y2021i7856d10.1038_s41586-021-03428-z.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Direct observation of chemical short-range order in a medium-entropy alloy

Author

Listed:
  • Xuefei Chen

    (Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
    University of Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Qi Wang

    (Science and Technology on Surface Physics and Chemistry Laboratory)

  • Zhiying Cheng

    (Tsinghua University)

  • Mingliu Zhu

    (Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Hao Zhou

    (Nanjing University of Science and Technology)

  • Ping Jiang

    (Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Lingling Zhou

    (Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
    University of Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Qiqi Xue

    (Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
    University of Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Fuping Yuan

    (Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
    University of Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Jing Zhu

    (Tsinghua University)

  • Xiaolei Wu

    (Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
    University of Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • En Ma

    (Xi’an Jiaotong University)

Abstract

Complex concentrated solutions of multiple principal elements are being widely investigated as high- or medium-entropy alloys (HEAs or MEAs)1–11, often assuming that these materials have the high configurational entropy of an ideal solution. However, enthalpic interactions among constituent elements are also expected at normal temperatures, resulting in various degrees of local chemical order12–22. Of the local chemical orders that can develop, chemical short-range order (CSRO) is arguably the most difficult to decipher and firm evidence of CSRO in these materials has been missing thus far16,22. Here we discover that, using an appropriate zone axis, micro/nanobeam diffraction, together with atomic-resolution imaging and chemical mapping via transmission electron microscopy, can explicitly reveal CSRO in a face-centred-cubic VCoNi concentrated solution. Our complementary suite of tools provides concrete information about the degree/extent of CSRO, atomic packing configuration and preferential occupancy of neighbouring lattice planes/sites by chemical species. Modelling of the CSRO order parameters and pair correlations over the nearest atomic shells indicates that the CSRO originates from the nearest-neighbour preference towards unlike (V−Co and V−Ni) pairs and avoidance of V−V pairs. Our findings offer a way of identifying CSRO in concentrated solution alloys. We also use atomic strain mapping to demonstrate the dislocation interactions enhanced by the CSROs, clarifying the effects of these CSROs on plasticity mechanisms and mechanical properties upon deformation.

Suggested Citation

  • Xuefei Chen & Qi Wang & Zhiying Cheng & Mingliu Zhu & Hao Zhou & Ping Jiang & Lingling Zhou & Qiqi Xue & Fuping Yuan & Jing Zhu & Xiaolei Wu & En Ma, 2021. "Direct observation of chemical short-range order in a medium-entropy alloy," Nature, Nature, vol. 592(7856), pages 712-716, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:592:y:2021:i:7856:d:10.1038_s41586-021-03428-z
    DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03428-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03428-z
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41586-021-03428-z?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ying Han & Hangman Chen & Yongwen Sun & Jian Liu & Shaolou Wei & Bijun Xie & Zhiyu Zhang & Yingxin Zhu & Meng Li & Judith Yang & Wen Chen & Penghui Cao & Yang Yang, 2024. "Ubiquitous short-range order in multi-principal element alloys," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-13, December.
    2. Changyong Cai & Shuanggen Wu & Yunfei Zhang & Fenfang Li & Zhijian Tan & Shengyi Dong, 2024. "Bulk transparent supramolecular glass enabled by host–guest molecular recognition," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.
    3. Qian Zhang & Ranming Niu & Ying Liu & Jiaxi Jiang & Fan Xu & Xuan Zhang & Julie M. Cairney & Xianghai An & Xiaozhou Liao & Huajian Gao & Xiaoyan Li, 2023. "Room-temperature super-elongation in high-entropy alloy nanopillars," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    4. Yue Li & Ye Wei & Zhangwei Wang & Xiaochun Liu & Timoteo Colnaghi & Liuliu Han & Ziyuan Rao & Xuyang Zhou & Liam Huber & Raynol Dsouza & Yilun Gong & Jörg Neugebauer & Andreas Marek & Markus Rampp & S, 2023. "Quantitative three-dimensional imaging of chemical short-range order via machine learning enhanced atom probe tomography," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    5. Vinícius P. Bacurau & Pedro A. F. P. Moreira & Gustavo Bertoli & Angelo F. Andreoli & Eric Mazzer & Flávio F. Assis & Piter Gargarella & Guilherme Koga & Guilherme C. Stumpf & Santiago J. A. Figueroa , 2024. "Comprehensive analysis of ordering in CoCrNi and CrNi2 alloys," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    6. Jing Wang & Ping Jiang & Fuping Yuan & Xiaolei Wu, 2022. "Chemical medium-range order in a medium-entropy alloy," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-6, December.
    7. Yang Yang & Sheng Yin & Qin Yu & Yingxin Zhu & Jun Ding & Ruopeng Zhang & Colin Ophus & Mark Asta & Robert O. Ritchie & Andrew M. Minor, 2024. "Rejuvenation as the origin of planar defects in the CrCoNi medium entropy alloy," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.
    8. Jae Bok Seol & Won-Seok Ko & Seok Su Sohn & Min Young Na & Hye Jung Chang & Yoon-Uk Heo & Jung Gi Kim & Hyokyung Sung & Zhiming Li & Elena Pereloma & Hyoung Seop Kim, 2022. "Mechanically derived short-range order and its impact on the multi-principal-element alloys," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-13, December.
    9. Cheng-Hsien Yeh & Wen-Dung Hsu & Bernard Haochih Liu & Chan-Shan Yang & Chen-Yun Kuan & Yuan-Chun Chang & Kai-Sheng Huang & Song-Syun Jhang & Chia-Yen Lu & Peter K. Liaw & Chuan-Feng Shih, 2024. "Low-frequency conductivity of low wear high-entropy alloys," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    10. Shenghua Wu & Hanne S. Soreide & Bin Chen & Jianjun Bian & Chong Yang & Chunan Li & Peng Zhang & Pengming Cheng & Jinyu Zhang & Yong Peng & Gang Liu & Yanjun Li & Hans J. Roven & Jun Sun, 2022. "Freezing solute atoms in nanograined aluminum alloys via high-density vacancies," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-11, December.
    11. Jingyuan Yan & Sheng Yin & Mark Asta & Robert O. Ritchie & Jun Ding & Qian Yu, 2022. "Anomalous size effect on yield strength enabled by compositional heterogeneity in high-entropy alloy nanoparticles," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-8, December.
    12. Linze Li & Bin Ouyang & Zhengyan Lun & Haoyan Huo & Dongchang Chen & Yuan Yue & Colin Ophus & Wei Tong & Guoying Chen & Gerbrand Ceder & Chongmin Wang, 2023. "Atomic-scale probing of short-range order and its impact on electrochemical properties in cation-disordered oxide cathodes," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.
    13. Chang Liu & Wenjun Lu & Wenzhen Xia & Chaowei Du & Ziyuan Rao & James P. Best & Steffen Brinckmann & Jian Lu & Baptiste Gault & Gerhard Dehm & Ge Wu & Zhiming Li & Dierk Raabe, 2022. "Massive interstitial solid solution alloys achieve near-theoretical strength," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:592:y:2021:i:7856:d:10.1038_s41586-021-03428-z. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.