Single-Phase High-Entropy Carbides Synthesized from a Mixture of Pre-Mechanically Alloyed TiZrHfTaNb HEA Powders and Carbon

In this paper, single-phase chemically homogeneous high-entropy ceramics (HEC) were synthesized from a mixture of pre-mechanically alloyed TiZrHfTaNb high-entropy alloy (HEA) powders and carbon. Mechanical alloying (MA) of a TiZrHfTaNb alloy with different process times made it possible to obtain a powder with uniform distribution of chemical elements and with the main phase in the form of a body-centered cubic (BCC) solid solution. HEC with the chemical formula MeC and space group Fm-3m begins to form at temperatures of about 1600 °C in the process of sintering a mixture of pre-mechanically alloyed HEA powders and carbon. A detailed study of the diffraction patterns revealed peaks of mixed zirconium-hafnium oxide (ZrHf)O 2 , which is also confirmed by the microstructure analysis results and distribution elements. Increasing the process temperature to 2000 °C leads to the formation of a single-phase and chemically homogeneous (TiZrHfTaNb)C HEC.