Abstract
Soft magnetic materials (SMMs) find important applications in a number of areas. The diverse requirements for these applications are often demanding and challenging for the design and fabrication of SMMs. Here we report a new class of FeCoNi(AlSi) x (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.8 in molar ratio) SMMs based on high-entropy alloys (HEAs). It is found that with the compositional and structural changes, the optimal balance of magnetic, electrical, and mechanical properties is achieved at x = 0.2, for which the combination of saturation magnetization (1.15 T), coercivity (1,400 A/m), electrical resistivity (69.5 μΩ·cm) , yield strength (342 MPa), and strain without fracture (50%) makes the alloy an excellent SMM. Ab initio calculations are used to explain the high magnetic saturation of the present HEAs and the effects of compositional structures on magnetic characteristics. The HEA-based SMMs point to new directions in both the application of HEAs and the search for novel SMMs.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 1455 |
| Journal | Scientific Reports |
| Volume | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2013 |
Funding
The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support by the Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, No.50971019). PKL appreciates the support from the US National Science Foundation (DMR-0909037, CMMI-0900271, and CMMI-1100080), the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy’s Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP) 00119262, and the DOE, Office of Fossil Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory (DE-FE-0008855) with Drs. C.V. Cooper, A. Ardell, E.M. Taleff, R.O. Jensen, Jr., Lizhen Tan, V. Cedro, and S. Lesica as program managers. YQC is supported by the Scientific User Facilities Division, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, US Department of Energy. This work used computational resources provided by the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE), which is supported by National Science Foundation grant number OCI-1053575.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences | |
| Office of Basic Energy Sciences | |
| Scientific User Facilities Division | |
| US Department of Energy | |
| National Science Foundation | CMMI-1100080, 0900271, DMR-0909037, CMMI-0900271 |
| U.S. Department of Energy | |
| Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering | 1053575 |
| Office of Fossil Energy | |
| Office of Nuclear Energy | 00119262 |
| Oak Ridge National Laboratory | OCI-1053575 |
| National Energy Technology Laboratory | DE-FE-0008855 |
| National Natural Science Foundation of China | 50971019 |