High Entropy Alloys

High entropy alloys (HEAs) are alloys created by combining (often) five or more elements in equal or rather significant amounts. Prior to their synthesis, typical metallic alloys consisted of one or two major components with small amounts of other elements. The new class of materials known as HEAs has several attractive characteristics that make them extremely beneficial in the fields of materials research and engineering. According to studies, some HEAs are stronger and lighter than standard alloys while also having superior fracture resistance, tensile strength, and resistance to corrosion and oxidation.

Figure 1. High entropy alloys.

The major techniques for creating HEAs depend on whether the metal is mixed in a liquid, solid, or gaseous state. Liquid phase techniques, including arc melting, induction melting, and Bridgman solidification, are used to generate the majority of HEA.

It is possible to process powders generated by solid-state processing techniques utilizing conventional powder metallurgy techniques or electrical discharge plasma sintering. This method allows the production of alloys that are difficult or impossible to produce using casting, such as AlLiMgScTi.

Processes like sputtering or molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), which can be used to precisely manipulate various elemental compositions to produce high entropy metals, are examples of vapor phase processing. Additional HEAs have been created via electrodeposition, thermal spraying, and laser cladding.

Application

Alfa Chemistry offers a wide range of high-entropy alloy products for the following typical applications:

• Aerospace and automotive components
• Surface coating of profiles
• Powder metallurgy
• Nuclear and industrial