The “HOPE-I” type high-current pulsed electron beam (HCPEB) equipment was used to irradiate the pure aluminum material with Zr coating preset by ball milling to realize the alloying of a Zr–Al coating surface. The microstructure and phase analysis were conducted by XRD, SEM, and TEM. The experimental results show that after Zr alloying on the Al surface by HCPEB, a layer of 15 μm was formed on the surface of the sample, which was mainly composed of Zr and Al–Zr intermetallic compounds. A large number of Al₃Zr (Ll2) particles was uniformly distributed in the alloyed layer, and the Al grains were obviously refined. In addition, the surface hardness and corrosion resistance of the samples were improved significantly after HCPEB irradiation.

In this investigation, chromium (Cr) was adopted as an alloying element on a nickel substrate, and the alloying process was materialized via high-current pulsed electron beam (HCPEB) irradiation. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were also conducted for microstructure characterization. The results showed that after HCPEB irradiation a nanocrystalline Cr-Ni alloying layer was formed and numerous dislocations were generated, resulting in a great deal of diffusion paths for Cr elements. Moreover, properties including hardness, wear and electrochemical performance were significantly improved after HCPEB irradiation, which was mainly due to the formation of the nanocrystalline Cr–Ni alloying layer. In addition, each strengthening mechanism that contributed to the hardness of the HCPEB-irradiated sample was mathematically analyzed, and solid solution strengthening was found to be of great importance.

In this paper, an Nb alloying layer on a TC4 alloy was fabricated by using high-current pulsed electron beam (HCPEB) irradiation to improve surface performance. X-ray diffraction (XRD), optical microscopy (OM), laser surface microscope (LSM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to characterize the phase composition and microstructure of the surface layer. The microhardness, wear tests and corrosion resistance were also examined. The results show that after HCPEB alloying, a Nb-alloyed layer was formed with about 3.6 μm in thickness on the surface of the sample, which was mainly composed of α’-Ti martensite, β-Ti equiaxial crystals, and NbTi₄ particles. After HCPEB irradiation, the surface hardness, wear resistance and corrosion resistance of Nb alloying layer on TC4 alloy were improved compared to the initial samples.

CoCrFeNiZr_0.3 is a two-phase coexisting (Laves + FCC) high-entropy alloy with high strength, excellent corrosion resistance, and thermal stability. However, the inhomogeneous distribution of the eutectic structure among the dendrites has a detrimental effect on the coordinated deformation of the material. The current study shows that the grain size, weave structure, and second phase distribution of high-entropy alloys can be significantly changed by thermal deformation, which affects the mechanical and physical properties, as well as the chemical stability of the alloys. In this study, the thermal deformation behavior of CoCrFeNiZr_0.3 biphasic hypoeutectic high-entropy alloy was investigated using a Gleeble-3500 thermal simulation tester under the conditions of deformation temperature of 950–1100 °C and deformation rate of 0.001–1 s⁻¹. The results show that CoCrFeNiZr_0.3 high-entropy alloy has higher deformation activation energy, which means its deformation resistance is larger. In addition, the microstructure with finer grain size and uniform distribution of Laves phase can be obtained by EBSD analysis after compression at 1000 °C and 0.01 s⁻¹.