Grain growth behavior and properties of high-entropy pseudobrookite(Mg,Co,Ni,Zn)Ti_(2)O_(5) ceramics

It is well known that the grain size of high-entropy ceramics is quite small owing to the sluggish diffusion effect. However, abnormal grain growth often occurs in high-entropy pseudobrookite ceramics, ultimately resulting in the formation of many abnormally grown grains with a grain size as large as 50 μm. To study this phenomenon, the grain growth behavior of high-entropy pseudobrookite ceramics was systematically investigated in this paper. The results demonstrate that the starting material powders first react with each other to form a high-entropy intermediate phase and calcined TiO_(2) powders (TiO_(2)-1100 ℃), and then as the sintering temperature increases, the formed high-entropy intermediate phase further reacts with TiO_(2)-1100 ℃ to form high-entropy pseudobrookite ceramics. Thus, in this system, in addition to the sluggish diffusion effect, the grain sizes of the high-entropy intermediate phase and TiO_(2)-1100 ℃ also affect the morphology of high-entropy pseudobrookite. Compared to nanosized TiO_(2), micron-sized TiO_(2) has a lower sintering activity. Therefore, the high-entropy intermediate phases (Mg,Co,Ni,Zn)TiO_(3) and TiO_(2)-1100 ℃ prepared with micron-sized starting materials exhibit lower grain sizes, finally resulting in the formation of high-entropy (Mg,Co,Ni,Zn)Ti_(2)O_(5) with small grain sizes. Moreover, nano-indentation and thermal conductivity tests were carried out on high-entropy (Mg,Co,Ni,Zn)Ti_(2)O_(5) with different morphologies. The results show that the hardness of high-entropy (Mg,Co,Ni,Zn)Ti_(2)O_(5) increases from 6.05 to 9.95 GPa as the grain size increases, whereas the thermal conductivity decreases from 2.091±0.006 to 1.583±0.006 W·m^(−1)·K^(−1). All these results indicate that high-entropy (Mg,Co,Ni,Zn)Ti_(2)O_(5) with a small grain size is a potential material for thermal protection.

New class of high-entropy pseudobrookite titanate with excellent thermal stability,low thermal expansion coefficient,and low thermal conductivity

As a type of titanate,the pseudobrookite(MTi_(2)O_(5)/M_(2)TiO_(5))exhibits a low thermal expansion coefficient and thermal conductivity,as well as excellent dielectric and solar spectrum absorption properties.However,the pseudobrookite is unstable and prone to decomposing below 1200℃,which limits the practical application of the pseudobrookite.In this paper,the high-entropy pseudobrookite ceramic is synthesized for the first time.The pure high-entropy(Mg,Co,Ni,Zn)Ti_(2)O_(5) with the pseudobrookite structure and the biphasic high-entropy ceramic composed of the highentropy pseudobrookite(Cr,Mn,Fe,Al,Ga)_(2)TiO_(5) and the high-entropy spinel(Cr,Mn,Fe,Al,Ga,Ti)_(3)O_(4) are successfully prepared by the in-situ solid-phase reaction method.The comparison between the theoretical crystal structure of the pseudobrookite and the aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy(AC-STEM)images of high-entropy(Mg,Co,Ni,Zn)Ti_(2)O_(5) shows that the metal ions(M and Ti ions)are disorderly distributed at the A site and the B site in high-entropy(Mg,Co,Ni,Zn)Ti_(2)O_(5),leading to an unprecedentedly high configurational entropy of high-entropy(Mg,Co,Ni,Zn)Ti_(2)O_(5).The bulk high-entropy(Mg,Co,Ni,Zn)Ti_(2)O_(5) ceramics exhibit a low thermal expansion coefficient of 6.35×10^(−6) K^(−1) in the temperature range of 25-1400℃ and thermal conductivity of 1.840 W·m^(−1)·K^(−1) at room temperature,as well as the excellent thermal stability at 200,600,and 1400℃.Owing to these outstanding properties,high-entropy(Mg,Co,Ni,Zn)Ti_(2)O_(5) is expected to be the promising candidate for high-temperature thermal insulation.This work has further extended the family of different crystal structures of high-entropy ceramics reported to date.