Achieving thermally stable nanoparticles in chemically complex alloys via controllable sluggish lattice diffusion

Nanoparticle strengthening provides a crucial basis for developing high-performance structural materials with potentially superb mechanical properties for structural applications. However, the general wisdom often fails to work well due to the poor thermal stability of nanoparticles, and the rapid coarsening of these particles will lead to the accelerated failures of these materials especially at elevated temperatures. Here, we demonstrate a strategy to achieve ultra-stable nanoparticles at 800~1000 °C in a Ni_59.9-xCo_xFe₁₃Cr₁₅Al₆Ti₆B_0.1 (at.%) chemically complex alloy, resulting from the controllable sluggish lattice diffusion (SLD) effect. Our diffusion kinetic simulations reveal that the Co element leads to a significant reduction in the interdiffusion coefficients of all the main elements, especially for the Al element, with a maximum of up to 5 orders of magnitude. Utilizing first-principles calculations, we further unveil the incompressibility of Al induced by the increased concentration of Co plays a critical role in controlling the SLD effect. These findings are useful for providing advances in the design of novel structural alloys with extraordinary property-microstructure stability combinations for structural applications.