A Strategic Design Route to Find a Depleted Uranium High‐Entropy Alloy with Great Strength

Abstract

The empirical parameters of mixing enthalpy (ΔHmix), mixing entropy (ΔSmix), atomic radius difference (δ), valence electron concentration (VEC), etc., are used in this study to design a depleted uranium high‐entropy alloy (HEA). X‐ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to assess the phase composition. Compression and hardness tests were conducted to select alloy constituents with outstanding mechanical properties. Based on the experimental results, the empirical criteria of HEAs are an effective means to develop depleted uranium high‐entropy alloys (DUHEAs). Finally, we created UNb0.5Zr0.5Mo0.5 and UNb0.5Zr0.5Ti0.2Mo0.2 HEAs with outstanding all‐round characteristics. Both alloys were composed of a single BCC structure. The hardness and strength of UNb0.5Zr0.5Mo0.5 and UNb0.5Zr0.5Ti0.2Mo0.2 were 305 HB and 1452 MPa, and 297 HB and 1157 MPa, respectively.