Alloying effect of tungsten on the structural and magnetic properties of CoCrFeNiW high entropy alloys

The recent observation of the hexagonal-closed-packed (hcp) phase in CoCrFeNi-based multicomponent alloys has reopened the question of phase stability in these alloys. We investigate the alloying effect of tungsten on the crystal and magnetic structures of (CoCrFeNi)(1-x)W-x high entropy alloys using density functional theory by means of the exact muffin-tin orbital method. The body-centered-cubic (bcc), face-centered-cubic (fcc), and hcp phases are investigated in two magnetic states: ferrimagnetic and paramagnetic. Below 8 at. % W the ground state of (CoCrFeNi)(1-x)W-x is the ferrimagnetic hcp phase and above that, the ferrimagnetic bcc phase is stabilized. Our calculations show that the fcc and hcp phases are energetically very close in the whole range of studied W compositions and because CoCrFeNi and (CoCrFeNi)(0.93)W-0.07 are observed in the fcc phase at room temperature, the hcp-fcc structural phase transition is expected to occur at lower temperatures. The total magnetic moment in bcc is almost double the value calculated for the fcc and hcp structures, which is due to that Cr moments are nearly quenched in bcc but are coupled antiferromagnetically to Fe, Ni, and Co in both hcp and fcc. We calculated also the Curie temperature of these alloys using the mean-field approximation. The calculated value was found to be 155 K for fcc CoCrFeNi, in excellent agreement with experiments, and the addition of W decreases this value. Our results contribute to the development of these relatively unknown corrosion-resistant materials into industrial applications, such as cemented carbides.