Effect of Boronizing on the Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of CoCrFeNiMn High-Entropy Alloy

Mingyu Hu; Xuemei Ouyang; Fucheng Yin; Xu Zhao; Zuchuan Zhang; Xinming Wang

doi:10.3390/ma16103754

Effect of Boronizing on the Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of CoCrFeNiMn High-Entropy Alloy

Materials (Basel). 2023 May 16;16(10):3754. doi: 10.3390/ma16103754.

Authors

Mingyu Hu^{1

2}, Xuemei Ouyang^{1

2}, Fucheng Yin^{1

2}, Xu Zhao^{1

2}, Zuchuan Zhang^{1

2}, Xinming Wang^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Xiangtan University, Xiangtan 411105, China.
² Key Laboratory of Materials Design and Preparation Technology of Hunan Province, Xiangtan University, Xiangtan 411105, China.

Abstract

The CoCrFeNiMn high-entropy alloys were treated by powder-pack boriding to improve their surface hardness and wear resistance. The variation of boriding layer thickness with time and temperature was studied. Then, the frequency factor D₀ and diffusion activation energy Q of element B in HEA are calculated to be 9.15 × 10^-5 m²/s and 206.93 kJ/mol, respectively. The diffusion behavior of elements in the boronizing process was investigated and shows that the boride layer forms with the metal atoms diffusing outward and the diffusion layer forms with the B atoms diffusing inward by the Pt-labeling method. In addition, the surface microhardness of CoCrFeNiMn HEA was significantly improved to 23.8 ± 1.4 Gpa, and the friction coefficient was reduced from 0.86 to 0.48~0.61.

Keywords: boronizing; boronizing mechanism; growth kinetics; high entropy alloy; wear resistance.

Abstract

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