Aging-Induced Ductile-Brittle-Ductile Transition in High-Entropy Alloys and its Implications.

ABSTRACT: Temper embrittlement, characterized by a dramatic loss of ductility within a narrow temperature window, is ubiquitous in conventional alloys but is not reported in compositionally complex or high-entropy alloy systems. Here, an unexpected ductile-brittle-ductile transition is discovered in a multiphase high-entropy alloy (HEA) aged in an intermediate temperature regime. Unlike the classical thermal embrittlement driven by grain boundary effects, this transition originates from the dynamic evolution of local chemical order (LCO) and phase boundary (PB) configurations in HEAs. Aging within the embrittlement-prone regime enhances chemical ordering, increases the density of ordered domains, and induces jagged PBs, collectively triggering plastic instability and the ductile-to-brittle transitio

SUBMITTER: Dai Q 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12806431 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature