Research Progress on Room-Temperature Brittleness and Toughening of TaCr₂ Laves Phase Alloy

The reason for room-temperature brittleness of TaCr₂ Laves phase alloy and the toughening method are reviewed. The research progress on the alloy toughening and the existing problems are introduced from the aspects of composition design and structure controlling, alloying toughening, material preparation technique improvement, etc. The room-temperature brittleness is mainly ascribed to the large unit cell size and complex lattice structure of TaCr₂. The future research should focus on the micro-nano scale high strength and toughness tantalum-chrome multi-component composites prepared using the new powder metallurgy technology.