Research and prospect of novel WC-HEA cemented carbide

With the rapid development of industrial manufacturing, traditional WC–Co cemented carbides have exposed more and more problems. Therefore, the preparation of ultrafine/nanocrystalline-grained cemented carbides and the development of new binders have become a hot issue in the field of cemented carbides. Due to the unique design concept, the high-entropy alloys (HEA) binder not only has the unique properties of the HEA itself, but also can replace the traditional Co element as the binder of cemented carbide, which opens up the possibility for industrial manufacturing. The stable chemical properties of WC are coupled with the multi-principal element characteristics of HEA binder, which makes novel WC-HEA cemented carbides have the characteristics of grain refinement, compact structure, stable structure, and excellent capability. A multitude of studies have found that the new WC-HEA cemented carbide exhibits better service performance than WC–Co cemented carbide. In this paper, the main preparation processes of WC-HEA cemented carbide in recent years are summarized; the influence of the working principle, advantages, and defects of the two different preparation methods on the microstructure and properties of WC-HEA cemented carbide were described. The characteristics and influence mechanism of microstructure such as the composition of high-entropy alloy binder and the change behavior of phase structure of WC-HEA cemented carbide were discussed. The service performance characteristics of WC-HEA cemented carbides were discussed, including mechanical properties, wear resistance, oxidation resistance, and corrosion resistance. Finally, it summarizes the research challenges and prospects in the current research work, and provides an outlook on the research direction and application prospects of WC-HEA cemented carbide.