Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) Shielding

Effectiveness of High Entropy AlCoCrFeNi Alloy

Yi Zhang
Adviser: Dr. Shengmin Guo

LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY

College of Engineering
Department of Mechanical &
Industrial Engineering
 Fabrication of High Entropy Alloy

• Arc melt casting: most of the bulk alloys were prepared by arc melt casting. However, the
arc melt process can only prepare samples with limited shapes and sizes, which will
definitely restrict the applications of high entropy alloys.

• High energy ball milling (HEM) is a widely used solid state processing route for synthesis
of advanced material, which can easily lead to the formation of nanocrystalline and
increase the properties and application scope of high entropy alloys. It can produce large-
scale, micro- and nano-sized material, which are high in purity and uniform in
composition.
 Fabrication of Large HEA and Small HEA Particles

 The powder of Al, Co, Cr, Fe

and Ni with the same atomic
percentage were mixed together
and then put into stainless steel
jar and mill together with
stainless steel balls

 Large HEA particles (HEAL)

were obtained after ball milling
for 10 hours.

 After then, 5 hours wet ball

milling was used to reduce the
size of large HEA particle
Schematic diagram of the high energy ball milling synthesis mechanism for

HEA particles
 XRD peaks of Al, Cr, Fe,
Co and Ni can be traced in
the premixed powders as
shown in Figure a

 The crystalline structure of

large and small HEA
particle were confirmed to
be BCC phase

 Lattice constant of large

HEA was determined as
0.288 nm by the Bragg’s
law
XRD spectra of (a) premixed metal powder and (b) the large (bottom spectrum) and
 Lattice constant of small the small (top spectrum) high entropy AlCoCrFeNi alloy particles
particle was 0.289 nm
Figure a, it can been seen that the

large HEA particles are non-

agglomerated. Figure b demonstrate

that the particle is quite equiaxed.

Figure 3c; small HEA consist of

non-agglomerated particles with

polygonal shapes and sharp edges,

even some of them are flake

SEM micrographs of (a) large and (c) small high entropy AlCoCrFeNi alloy

particles, (b) represent the large particle in (a), and (d) represent the small particle
 Composition (at %) analysis results obtained from EDS for large and small HEA particle

Element Al Cr Fe Co Ni

HEAL(%) 19.95 17.77 21.58 21.62 19.07

HEAS(%) 18.89 18.75 22.84 20.30 19.24

• The concentration of Al, Cr, Fe, Co and Ni for point 1are close to 1:1:1:1:1, the chemical
composition of the large particle is agree with the percentage of pre-mixed powder, which
suggesting the large particles is homogeneous in chemical composition.

• For small HEA particle, the elemental proportion are still close to the results of large HEA
particle, which indicate the small particle is also homogeneous in chemical composition as
the large particle.
 Range of large HEA particle size is  The small HEA particle exhibited more
broad: from 500 nm to 20 μm. narrow distribution, the range is 100 nm-7μm

 The average particle size: 7μm  The average particle size: 7μm

The statistical size distribution of the (a) large and (b) small HEA particles
To further investigate the crystal structure of the small particles,
the TEM and SAD patterns are taken on one single randomly
selected small particle.

(a) TEM image of the smaller HEAs particle, and (b) High-resolution TEM images from the marked region

ത
(Region A). The inset in (5a) is the corresponding ED pattern along the [111] zone axis.

The SAD pattern is indexed to BCC phase, which confirms the XRD results.
 Fabrication of HEA/Epoxy Composites

High mechanical stirring

HEA Epoxy resin monomer Mixture
sonication

Low mechanical stirring

Uncured composite Curing agent
Sonication in ice-water bath
into molds
Poured
Curing

hours
24

Solidified specimen
 EMI Shielding Effectiveness

• The total EMI SET of HEAL/epoxy composite is about 7

dB and the maximum value is only 8.44 dB at 29.0 GHz

• The HEAS/epoxy composite shows excellent

microwave shielding properties

• The maximum SET is 20 dB at 35.7 GHz, suggesting

that over 99 % EM wave is shielded

• The SET value is more than 15 dB in the whole 26.5-

40.0 GHz range, corresponding to more than 97 % EM
wave is shielded, which is considered an adequate level
of shielding for many applications EMI SET of HEAL/epoxy composite, HEAS/epoxy
composite at 26.5-40.0 GHz
 Shielding Mechanism
• It is obvious that the absorption is much more than the reflection in
the whole frequency for both HEAL and HEAS

• It can be seen that SEA of the HEAL/epoxy composite is low (5.4 ±

1.4), while the SEA of the HEAS/epoxy composite is over 10.4 in
the whole range of 26.5-40.0 GHz and has a maximum value of 18
dB at 35.2 GHz.

• The improvement of SER is not obvious from HEAL/epoxy to

HEAS/epoxy composites, it just improve from 2.1 to 3.6 dB

• The reduced size enhances the total EMI shielding mainly via the
enhanced electromagnetic wave absorption performance.
The absorption SEA dB and the reflection SER
dB of HEAL/epoxy composite and
HEAS/epoxy composite at 26.5-40.0 GHz
 Conclusion
• AlCoCrFeNi high entropy alloy (HEA) are synthesized by high energy ball milling, and the additional
wet ball milling optimize the particle size and shape.

• The FE-SEM estimate that the quit equiaxed HEAL particle distribute in the range of 0.5-20 μm, while
the polygonal HEAS particle is in the size range of 100-7 μm.

• Comparing with the HEAL, the HEAS are found to have more excellent microwave shielding
effectiveness over the tested frequency range of 26.5 to 40 GHz due to the smaller particle size and the
flake-like shape.

• The HEAS sample has a maximum total shielding (SET) of 20 dB, compared to 8.44 dB of the HEAL
sample, mainly via the enhancement of absorption (SEA) from 6.8 dB of HEAL to 18 of HEAS.