AlTiVNbCr高熵合金是一种由西安工业大学材化学院通过真空电弧熔炼技术制备的多主元合金材料。其制备过程采用等原子比的铝(Al)、钛(Ti)、钒(V)、铌(Nb)和铬(Cr)等高纯度金属(≥99.9%)作为原料,在电弧熔炼炉中反复熔炼5次以上,通过水冷模具快速冷却形成均匀的合金锭,随后经切割和打磨加工成符合磁控溅射要求的靶材。该合金的设计基于高熵效应,多种元素在熔炼过程中形成简单的体心立方(BCC)固溶体结构,且因原子尺寸差异导致晶格畸变,进一步增强了材料的硬度和热稳定性。在应用方面,AlTiVNbCr高熵合金靶材被安装在磁控溅射设备中,通过物理气相沉积(PVD)技术在刀具表面镀覆氮化物薄膜。溅射过程中,氮气作为反应气体与合金元素结合,形成具有非晶或纳米晶结构的高熵合金氮化物涂层(如(AlTiVNbCr)N)。这种涂层通过固溶强化和晶界强化效应显著提升了刀具的机械性能,例如在优化溅射功率(如200 W)下,薄膜硬度可达50GPa以上,弹性恢复率超过80%。此类涂层刀具在高速切削中表现出优异的耐磨性,刀腹磨损量可低至10.8 μm,同时加工工件的表面粗糙度(Ra)可控制在1.367 μm以内,大幅延长了刀具使用寿命。研究表明,高熵合金氮化物薄膜的致密性和抗高温氧化性还使其适用于重载切削和复杂工件加工,成为提升现代刀具综合性能的关键技术。
AlTiVNbCr high-entropy alloy is a multi-principal element alloy material developed by the School of Materials and Chemistry at Xi'an Technological University using vacuum arc melting technology. The preparation process involves using high-purity metals (≥99.9%) such as aluminum (Al), titanium (Ti), vanadium (V), niobium (Nb), and chromium (Cr) in equiatomic ratios as raw materials. These materials are repeatedly melted more than five times in an arc melting furnace and rapidly cooled using a water-cooled mold to form a homogeneous alloy ingot. The ingot is then cut and polished to produce targets suitable for magnetron sputtering. The design of this alloy is based on the high-entropy effect, where multiple elements form a simple body-centered cubic (BCC) solid solution structure during melting. The atomic size differences among the elements induce lattice distortion, further enhancing the material's hardness and thermal stability.
In terms of applications, AlTiVNbCr high-entropy alloy targets are installed in magnetron sputtering equipment to deposit nitride coatings on tool surfaces through physical vapor deposition (PVD) technology. During the sputtering process, nitrogen gas acts as a reactive gas, combining with the alloy elements to form high-entropy alloy nitride coatings (e.g., (AlTiVNbCr)N) with amorphous or nanocrystalline structures. These coatings significantly improve the mechanical properties of the tools through solid solution strengthening and grain boundary strengthening effects. For instance, under optimized sputtering power (e.g., 200 W), the film hardness can exceed 50 GPa, with an elastic recovery rate of over 80%. Tools coated with this material exhibit excellent wear resistance during high-speed cutting, with flank wear as low as 10.8 μm, while the surface roughness (Ra) of the machined workpiece can be controlled within 1.367 μm, significantly extending the tool's service life. Research indicates that the dense structure and high-temperature oxidation resistance of high-entropy alloy nitride films also make them suitable for heavy-duty cutting and complex workpiece processing, establishing them as a key technology for enhancing the comprehensive performance of modern tools.