Facile Preparation of Multiscale High‐Entropy Carbide Particles Utilizing Pulse Discharge: Phase and Microstructure Evolution

Abstract

High‐entropy transition‐metal carbides (HETMCs) are intensively explored as a new generation of engineering and energy materials. Compared with HETMC ceramic blocks, the preparation of particles, especially at the nanoscale, is severely limited by their harsh thermodynamic and kinetic synthesis conditions. Herein, HETMC particles are facilely prepared utilizing pulse discharge, during which the HETMC ceramic block is transformed into micron, sub‐micron, nano, and ultrafine nanoparticles (less than 10 nm) within nonequilibrium plasma channels. The face‐centered cubic structure of the ceramic block is inherited by the transformed particles of different scales. To clarify the formation mechanism of these particles, the morphologies and microstructures of these particles are systematically characterized and analyzed. Micron and sub‐micron HETMC particles with irregular shapes are produced by the impact force of explosion during pulse discharge, while the formation of nano and ultrafine nanoparticles with regular spherical shape is attributed to the melting and vaporization of the HETMC ceramic block.