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High-entropy ceramics attract more and more attention in recent years. However, mechanical properties especially strength and fracture toughness for high-entropy ceramics and their composites have not been comprehensively reported. In this work, high-entropy (Ti0.2Zr0.2Hf0.2Nb0.2Ta0.2)B2 (HEB) monolithic and its composite containing 20 vol% SiC (HEB-20SiC) are prepared by hot pressing. The addition of SiC not only accelerates the densification process but also refines the microstructure of HEB, resulting in improved mechanical properties. The obtained dense HEB and HEB-20SiC ceramics hot pressed at 1800 ℃ exhibit four-point flexural strength of 339±17 MPa and 447±45 MPa, and fracture toughness of 3.81±0.40 MPa·m1/2 and 4.85±0.33 MPa·m1/2 measured by single-edge notched beam (SENB) technique. Crack deflection and branching by SiC particles is considered to be the main toughening mechanisms for the HEB-20SiC composite. The hardness Hv0.2 of the sintered HEB and HEB-20SiC ceramics is 23.7±0.7 GPa and 24.8±1.2 GPa, respectively. With the increase of indentation load, the hardness of the sintered ceramics decreases rapidly until the load reaches about 49 N, due to the indentation size effect. Based on the current experimental investigation it can be seen that the room temperature bending strength and fracture toughness of the high-entropy diboride ceramics are within ranges commonly observed in structure ceramics.


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Mechanical properties of hot-pressed high-entropy diboride-based ceramics

Show Author's information Ji-Xuan LIUXiao-Qin SHENYue WUFei LIYongcheng LIANGGuo-Jun ZHANG( )
State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Sciences, Institute of Functional Materials, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China

Abstract

High-entropy ceramics attract more and more attention in recent years. However, mechanical properties especially strength and fracture toughness for high-entropy ceramics and their composites have not been comprehensively reported. In this work, high-entropy (Ti0.2Zr0.2Hf0.2Nb0.2Ta0.2)B2 (HEB) monolithic and its composite containing 20 vol% SiC (HEB-20SiC) are prepared by hot pressing. The addition of SiC not only accelerates the densification process but also refines the microstructure of HEB, resulting in improved mechanical properties. The obtained dense HEB and HEB-20SiC ceramics hot pressed at 1800 ℃ exhibit four-point flexural strength of 339±17 MPa and 447±45 MPa, and fracture toughness of 3.81±0.40 MPa·m1/2 and 4.85±0.33 MPa·m1/2 measured by single-edge notched beam (SENB) technique. Crack deflection and branching by SiC particles is considered to be the main toughening mechanisms for the HEB-20SiC composite. The hardness Hv0.2 of the sintered HEB and HEB-20SiC ceramics is 23.7±0.7 GPa and 24.8±1.2 GPa, respectively. With the increase of indentation load, the hardness of the sintered ceramics decreases rapidly until the load reaches about 49 N, due to the indentation size effect. Based on the current experimental investigation it can be seen that the room temperature bending strength and fracture toughness of the high-entropy diboride ceramics are within ranges commonly observed in structure ceramics.

Keywords: flexural strength, fracture toughness, high-entropy ceramics, high-entropy diboride, indentation size effect

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Publication history
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Publication history

Received: 22 February 2020
Revised: 30 April 2020
Accepted: 01 May 2020
Published: 20 May 2020
Issue date: August 2020

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© The Author(s) 2020

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51532009, 51872045); Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (No. 18ZR1401400); the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Nos. 2232018D3-32, 2232019A3-13); and State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, Donghua University (No. 19ZK0113).

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