The issue of hydrogen embrittlement (HE) in face-centered (FCC) structured alloys is significant for H storage and transportation application due to unanticipated damage beyond its predicted service life. This unpredictable situation may harm human life and limit hydrogen to a reliable source of renewable energy in industrial fields. Recent research has suggested that multi-principal element alloys possess high resistance to HE. However, there has been limited exploration of how their unique properties affect the HE mechanisms. In this study, using simple model VCrCoNi alloys with analogous grain sizes, the reduction rate of ductility by hydrogen uptake was measured through a slow strain rate tensile test following electro-chemical H charging. Further, the origin of HE resistance was investigated by analyzing various factors such as hydrogen contents, fracture and deformation behaviors, and grain boundary properties using thermal desorption spectroscopy, scanning electron microscope, and electron backscatter diffraction. Despite the consistent trends of the H content, stacking fault energy, and stress with increasing V content, the resistance to HE is the highest for the alloy with an intermediate ratio of V and Cr, namely, for the V_0.7Cr_0.3CoNi alloy. Through the analysis of grain boundary characteristics, the high resistance is attributed to large fractions of special boundaries and special triple junctions and large twin-related domain size, which suppresses crack growth and interlinkage. The favorable grain boundary characteristics result from mechanical dynamic recovery, achieved by the competitive effects of solid-solution strengthening and stacking fault energy. Thus, the present study provides novel insights into enhancing HE resistance in FCC-structured alloys.

Multi-principal element alloys usually exhibit outstanding strength and toughness at cryogenic temperatures, especially in CrMnFeCoNi and CrCoNi alloys. These remarkable cryogenic properties are attributed to the occurrence of deformation twins, and it is envisaged that a reduced stacking fault energy (SFE) transforms the deformation mechanisms into advantageous properties at cryogenic temperatures. A recently reported high-strength VCoNi alloy is expected to exhibit further notable cryogenic properties. However, no attempt has been made to investigate the cryogenic properties in detail as well as the underlying deformation mechanisms. Here, the effects of cryogenic temperature on the tensile and impact properties are investigated, and the underlying mechanisms determining those properties are revealed in terms of the temperature dependence of the yield strength and deformation mechanism. Both the strength and ductility were enhanced at 77 K compared to 298 K, while the Charpy impact toughness gradually decreased with temperature. The planar dislocation glides remained unchanged at 77 K in contrast to the CrMnFeCoNi and CrCoNi alloys resulting in a relatively constant and slightly increasing SFE as the temperature decreased, which is confirmed via ab initio simulations. However, the deformation localization near the grain boundaries at 298 K changed into a homogeneous distribution throughout the whole grains at 77 K, leading to a highly sustained strain hardening rate. The reduced impact toughness is directly related to the decreased plastic zone size, which is due to the reduced dislocation width and significant temperature dependence of the yield strength.