Microstructures and properties of high-entropy alloys

https://scholars.cityu.edu.hk/files/27103119/High_entropy_alloy_challenges_and_prospects.pdf

High-entropy alloy: challenges and prospects

As human improve their ability to fabricate materials, alloys have evolved from simple to complex compositions, accordingly improving functions and performances, promoting the advancements of human civilization. In recent years, high-entropy alloys (HEAs) have attracted tremendous attention in various fields. With multiple principal components, they inherently possess unique microstructures and many impressive properties, such as high strength and hardness, excellent corrosion resistance, thermal stability, fatigue, fracture, and irradiation resistance, in terms of which they overwhelm the traditional alloys. All these properties have endowed HEAs with many promising potential applications. An in-depth understanding of the essence of HEAs is important to further developing numerous HEAs with better properties and performance in the future. In this paper, we review the recent development of HEAs, and summarize their preparation methods, composition design, phase formation and microstructures, various properties, and modeling and simulation calculations. In addition, the future trends and prospects of HEAs are put forward.

/pdf/science-and-technology-in-high-entropy-alloys-26erwk0vz7.pdf

Science and technology in high-entropy alloys

In the past 14 years, as a branch of high-entropy alloy (HEA) materials, HEA films and coatings have exhibited the attractive and unique properties, relative to the conventional film and coating ma...

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/21663831.2018.1434248

Microstructures and properties of high-entropy alloy films and coatings: a review

Two definitions of high-entropy alloys (HEAs), based on composition and entropy, are reviewed. Four core effects, i.e., high entropy, sluggish diffusion, severe lattice distortion, and cocktail effects, are mentioned to show the uniqueness of HEAs. The current state of physical metallurgy is discussed. As the compositions of HEAs are entirely different from that of conventional alloys, physical metallurgy principles might need to be modified for HEAs. The thermodynamics, kinetics, structure, and properties of HEAs are briefly discussed relating with the four core effects of HEAs. Among these, a severe lattice distortion effect is particularly emphasized because it exerts direct and indirect influences on many aspects of microstructure and properties. Because a constituent phase in HEAs can be regarded as a whole-solute matrix, every lattice site in the matrix has atomic-scale lattice distortion. In such a distorted lattice, point defects, line defects, and planar defects are different from those in conventional matrices in terms of atomic configuration, defect energy, and dynamic behavior. As a result, mechanical and physical properties are significantly influenced by such a distortion. Suitable mechanisms and theories correlating composition, microstructure, and properties for HEAs are required to be built in the future. Only these understandings make it possible to complete the physical metallurgy of the alloy world.

Physical Metallurgy of High-Entropy Alloys

With multiple elements mixed at equal or near-equal molar ratios, the emerging, high-entropy alloys (HEAs), also named multi-principal elements alloys (MEAs), have posed tremendous challenges to materials scientists and physicists, e.g., how to predict high-entropy phase formation and design alloys. In this paper, we propose some guidelines in predicting phase formation, using thermodynamic and topological parameters of the constituent elements. This guideline together with the existing ones will pave the way toward the composition design of MEAs and HEAs, as well as property optimization based on the composition–structure–property relationship.

S. G. Ma

Papers

Guidelines in predicting phase formation of high-entropy alloys