In this study,yttrium as desulfurizer on the purification of Ni-20Co-20Cr-10Al-Y alloy during vac-uum induction melting (VIM) process using Y2O3 cru-cibles was investigated experimentally.It is found that Y plays an important role on the desulfurizing of the NiCo-CrA1Y alloy.Without any addition of Y,merely the employment of Y2O3 crucibles could effectively reduce S content of the alloy melts from 28 × 10-6 to 6 × 10-6-7 × 10-6.With addition of 0.8 wt％ Y in the alloy,the concentration of S could further reduce 2 × 10-6-3 × 10-6.The primary interactive mechanism between Y and molten alloy was concluded to be the synthesis reac-tion of Ni3Y phase,Y2S3 phases and YAlO3 phase.In the desulfurize slags,Y2S3 phases and YAlO3 phase are found.No secondary contamination is present in the alloy melts after addition of Y.