High-entropy alloys (HEAs) have been reported to have better properties than conventional materials; however, they are more expensive due to the high cost of their main components. Therefore, research is needed to reduce manufacturing costs. In this study, CoCrFeMnNi HEAs were prepared using metal injection molding (MIM), which is a powder metallurgy process that involves less material waste than machining process. Although the MIM-processed samples were in the face-centered cubic (FCC) phase, porosity remained after sintering at 1200°C, 1250°C, and 1275°C. In this study, the hot isostatic pressing (HIP) process, which considers both temperature (1150°C) and pressure (150 MPa), was adopted to improve the quality of the MIM samples. Although the hardness of the HIP-treated samples decreased slightly and the Mn composition was significantly reduced, the process effectively eliminated many pores that remained after the 1275°C MIM process. The HIP process can improve the quality of the alloy.

High-entropy alloys (HEAs) are attracting attention because of their excellent properties and functions; however, they are relatively expensive compared with commercial alloys. Therefore, various efforts have been made to reduce the cost of raw materials. In this study, MIM is attempted using coarse equiatomic CoCrFeMnNi HEA powders. The mixing ratio (powder:binder) for HEA feedstock preparation is explored using torque rheometer. The block-shaped green parts are fabricated through a metal injection molding process using feedstock. The thermal debinding conditions are explored by thermogravimetric analysis, and solvent and thermal debinding are performed. It is densified under various sintering conditions considering the melting point of the HEA. The final product, which contains a small amount of non-FCC phase, is manufactured at a sintering temperature of 1250oC.

The CoCrFeMnNi high-entropy alloy (HEA), which is the most widely known HEA with a single facecentered cubic structure, has attracted significant academic attention over the past decade owing to its outstanding multifunctional performance. Recent studies have suggested that CoCrFeMnNi-type HEAs exhibit excellent printability for selective laser melting (SLM) under a wide range of process conditions. Moreover, it has been suggested that SLM can not only provide great topological freedom of design but also exhibit excellent mechanical properties by overcoming the strength–ductility trade-off via producing a hierarchical heterogeneous microstructure. In this regard, the SLM-processed CoCrFeMnNi HEA has been extensively studied to comprehensively understand the mechanisms of microstructural evolution and resulting changes in mechanical properties. In this review, recent studies on CoCrFeMnNi-type HEAs produced using SLM are discussed with respect to process-induced microstructural evolution and the relationship between hierarchical heterogeneous microstructure and mechanical properties.

This study investigates the microstructural properties of CoCrFeMnNi high entropy alloy (HEA) oxynitride thin film. The HEA oxynitride thin film is grown by the magnetron sputtering method using nitrogen and oxygen gases. The grown CoCrFeMnNi HEA film shows a microstructure with nanocrystalline regions of 5~20 nm in the amorphous region, which is confirmed by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM). From the TEM electron diffraction pattern analysis crystal structure is determined to be a face centered cubic (FCC) structure with a lattice constant of 0.491 nm, which is larger than that of CoCrFeMnNi HEA. The HEA oxynitride film shows a single phase in which constituting elements are distributed homogeneously as confirmed by element mapping using a Cs-corrected scanning TEM (STEM). Mechanical properties of the CoCrFeMnNi HEA oxynitride thin film are addressed by a nano indentation method, and a hardness of 8.13 GPa and a Young’s modulus of 157.3 GPa are obtained. The observed high hardness value is thought to be the result of hardening due to the nanocrystalline microstructure.