A novel, non-equiatomic NiCrWFeTi high-entropy alloy with exceptional phase stability

It is difficult to increase alloy stability using traditional alloy design approaches due to limited optimized microstructures. A substantial increase in service temperature usually causes the failure of materials with complex phase transformations. Here, we report a strategy to overcome this bottleneck by electronic structure calculations for phase stability in alloy systems. Unlike conventional high entropy alloys (HEAs) based on traditional physical parameters concept, the processing involves a covalent bonding in HEAs, leading to the increase of energy barrier of atomic diffusion. Our approach can effectively resist atoms moving or transposing, resulting in exceptional phase stability in NixCr4WFe9Ti alloy. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.