Nanocrystalline single-phase high-entropy alloy synthesized by using intermetallic compound type (TiZrHf)-(NiCuCo) high-entropy metallic glass precursor

‘AB’ intermetallic compound (IC) type (TiZrHf)-(NiCuCo) high-entropy metallic glass precursor (HE-MGP) has been designed under considering physical and thermodynamic relations between constitutive elements, such as atomic size difference, electronegativity difference, mixing enthalpy and entropy, and phase stability, for development of nanocrystalline single-phase high-entropy alloy. The IC type HE-MGP exhibits high thermal stability and polymorphic crystallization behavior. From the systematic investigations on crystallization kinetics and microstructural evolution, it was found that the HE-MGP crystallized into nanocrystalline single-phase high-entropy alloy with B2 structure by polymorphic crystallization, and nucleation and growth rates for crystallization processing strongly depend on the annealing temperature. Our approach and discovery provide an effective way to develop the nanocrystalline single-phase high-entropy alloys by designing IC type HE-MGP.