A team of scientists from South Ural State University has modelled and proven the high wear resistance of an innovative alloy at the nano-level. The joint work with colleagues from Iran, Great Britain, China, and the United Arab Emirates has been published in the Colloids and Surfaces A international journal.
On the part of SUSU, Majid Naseri, Evgeniy Trofimov, Alena Myasnikova, Dmitry Mikhailov, Natalya Shaburova and Aleksandr Orlov took part in the study.
The alloy is classified as a high-entropy one. This means that it is made up of five or more metals, each of which must impart specific properties to the alloy.
Creating an alloy from many different metals is not an easy task. Will it be possible to combine its components, will they retain their unique properties, such as electrical conductivity of iron or corrosion resistance or chromium? In order not to make a mistake and take the optimal ratio of components, it is necessary to study the alloy at the nano-level.
The methods used in this work allow us to answer many practically important questions: in what matrix the metal grains will line up, or how they will behave during mechanical processing, for example, forging. All this is important insofar as it is not an ingot or a sheet of metal that will be in demand, but an object made from it.
The new metal turned out to be one of the most inexpensive among the high-entropy alloys known in the world today. Most of its composition is made up of iron and nickel. 15% is chromium, which provides anti-corrosion properties. 10% is manganese. And finally, niobium can be used for the remaining part.
Scientists have modelled several versions of the alloy. The best characteristics were shown by the composition, where iron and nickel account for 65%, and niobium – 10%.
An alloy with such a composition is proposed for the first time and, according to scientists, promises to be optimal in terms of price/hardness and wear resistance.
Products made from the innovative alloy can be used in aircraft and mechanical engineering, they are resistant to aggressive environments and high temperatures.
This work is supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation and is carried out within the frameworks of the Priority 2030 program under the “Science and Universities” national project.