Microstructural and mechanical behavior of a CoCrFeNiCu_4 non-equiatomic high entropy alloy

High entropy alloy(HEA)-based alloy design is experiencing a conceptual broadening from equiatomic alloys to non-equiatomic alloys.To provide experimental basis for designing Cu-rich non-equiatomic HEAs,in the current study,a dual phase(Cu-rich and CoCrFeNi-rich phases) face-centered cubic CoCrFeNiCu_(4) alloy was systematically investigated.We provided initial and experiment-based understanding of the behavioral change of the alloy during a variety of thermal cycles and thermomechanical processing.The current results indicate that,during heating,preferred precipitation of Cu-rich particles occurs,leading to more pronounced compositional differences between the two constituent FCC phases and increased relative volume fraction of the Cu-rich phase.The Alloy exhibits a continuous melting and discontinuous solidification of the Cu-rich and CoCrFeNi-rich phases.After being cold-rolled to ~90 % thickness reduction,the alloy exhibits a recrystallization temperature higher than 800℃.Annealing at 300 and 500℃ led to strength reduction and/or ductility decrease;further increasing annealing temperature monotonically caused softening and ductilization due to decreased density of pre-existing dislocations.The yield-drop phenomena observed for the 900℃-and 1000℃-annealed specimens are associated with the locking of pre-existing dislocations by some "atmosphere",the nature of which warrants further elucidation.