Strengthening-Toughening Mechanism and Mechanical Properties of Span-Scale Heterostructure High-Entropy Alloy

High-entropy alloys overcome the limitations posed by traditional alloys due to features such as high strength, toughness, high wear resistance, and corrosion resistance. These alloys are novel metallic materials with excellent application potential; however, typically an inverse relationship is observed between the strength and ductility of a metal, which includes high-entropy alloys. Therefore, the design and development of high entropy alloys with high strength and high ductility have become a limitation in current research. Recently, heterostructure design has achieved great success in strengthening and toughening traditional metallic materials. Heterostructured and high-entropy alloys has garnered much attention and research interest to realize the strength and toughness of high-entropy alloys with high strength and high ductility. This study reviews the existing design models for heterostructures from the heterostructure scale perspective. Furthermore, the effects of different heterostructures on the strengthening and toughening mechanism and mechanical properties were analyzed, and future microstructural designs with high strength and toughness were anticipated.