Strength enhancement and slip behaviour of high-entropy carbide grains during micro-compression

Bulk polycrystalline high-entropy carbides are a newly developed group of materials that increase the limited compositional space of ultra-high temperature ceramics, which can withstand extreme environments exceeding 2000 °C in oxidizing atmospheres. Since the deformability of grains plays an important role in macromechanical performance, in this work we studied the strength and slip behaviour of grains of a spark-plasma sintered (Hf-Ta-Zr-Nb)C high-entropy carbide in a specific orientation during micropillar compression. For comparison, identical measurements were carried out on the monocarbides HfC and TaC. It was revealed that (Hf-Ta-Zr-Nb)C had a significantly enhanced yield and failure strength compared to the corresponding base monocarbides, while maintaining a similar ductility to the least brittle monocarbide (TaC) during the operation of [Formula: see text] slip systems. Additionally, it was concluded that the crystal orientation and stress conditions determine the operation of slip systems in mono- and high-entropy carbides at room temperature.