First-principles study of phase stability, elastic and thermodynamic properties of AlCrFeNi medium-entropy alloys

Abstract

We have applied the first-principles method to predict the phase stability, elastic and thermodynamic properties of ternary (AlCrFe, AlCrNi, CrFeNi and AlFeNi) and quaternary (AlCrFeNi) medium-entropy alloys (MEAs). Both body-centered cubic (BCC) and face-centered cubic (FCC) disordered structures are described using the special quasi-random structures (SQSs) technique. AlCrFe, AlCrNi and AlCrFeNi are favorable in single BCC structures, while CrFeNi is likely to form a single FCC structure. Addition of Ni help stabilizes AlCrFeNi quaternary MEAs. Al and Cr addition are in favor of the formation of BCC AlCrFeNi. Addition of Al, Cr and Ni reduce the resistance to volume deformation for quaternary AlCrFeNi due to the effect of the average number of [Formula: see text]-electrons. The ternary MEAs have better resistance to shear deformation and elastic stiffness than quaternary AlCrFeNi. In addition, all the considered MEAs embody elastic anisotropy and AlCrFeNi are predicted to be ductile behavior. Finally, volumetric thermal expansion coefficient, constant volume heat capacity, vibrational and electronic entropy, and Helmholtz free energies of stable BCC AlCrFeNi, BCC AlCrFe, BCC AlCrNi and FCC CrFeNi are calculated using the Debye–Grüneisen model in temperature ranging from 0 to 1200 K to elucidate the relationships between thermodynamic parameters and temperature.