Structural, Thermal, and Magnetic Properties of Nanostructured High-entropy Alloy CrMnFeCoNi

High-purity elemental Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, and Ni powders were blended with equiatomic composition and were subjected to mechanical alloying for 5, 10, 15, and 20 h. XRD results show that FCC and BCC phases were nucleated and coexist up to 10 h of milling. After 15 h of milling only FCC phase remains with crystallite sizes typically of nanostructured materials. The percentage of each phase was calculated using the Rietveld Method. Crystalline/interfacial components were estimated from the X-ray diffraction pattern of the as-milled powder. Currently no CIF cards represent the exact composition of Cantor’s Alloy. Thus, in order to refine the XRD experimental patterns, the CIF cards 108378 and 44731 were modified and the new proposition achieved good atomic and structural concordance. The increase of defects (interfacial component—IC) causes interesting changes on the thermal properties. The specific heat increases continuously while the thermal diffusivity decreases with milling time. Combining these results, the thermal conductivity of CrMnFeCoNi for 20 h of milling was 58 W/m.K was obtained. In terms of magnetic properties, VSM measurements reveal a weak soft ferromagnetic behavior with low coercivity, in which magnetization was shown to be a function of the amount of FCC phase.