Excellent room-temperature and cryogenic-temperature mechanical properties of a Ni-Fe-Co-Al-V eutectic multi-principal element alloy

In order to overcome the shortcomings of traditional alloys, such as poor fluidity and poor casting properties, eutectic multi-component alloys (EMPEAs) combine the advantages of traditional multi-component alloys and eutectic alloys, which has great potential to achieve high strength and large ductility. Here, a novel Ni-21.36Fe-9.02Co-8.77Al-5.85 V EMPEA was designed based on phase diagram simulations and fabricated via the traditional casting method. The designed EMPEA consists of FCC/L1₂ phase and BCC phase, which exhibits superior mechanical performance at room temperature (298 K) and cryogenic temperature (77 K). Concretely, the theoretical calculation results on the strengthening mechanisms reveals that the theoretical yield strength (∼708 MPa) is highly coincide with the experimental yield strength (∼726 MPa). Promisingly, the yield strength and the ultimate tensile strength of the as-cast EMPEA at cryogenic temperature significantly increase to ∼1023 MPa and ∼1396 MPa, respectively. Meanwhile, the fracture elongation at cryogenic temperature decreases by merely ∼1.6 %, reaching ∼11.2 %. And excellent cryogenic-temperature mechanical performance of the as-cast Ni-21.36Fe-9.02Co-8.77Al-5.85 V EMPEA is mainly derived from the twining strengthening and stacking faults. The corresponding research results provide great prospects for the design and engineering applications of high-performance alloys. © 2025 Elsevier B.V.