A universal configurational entropy metric for high-entropy materials

A B S T R A C T In recent years, high-entropy materials have become increasingly complex, outgrowing simple solid solution based calculations of configurational entropy, and with that, the previously established metrics for high-, medium-, and low-entropy. Those previous metrics are derived from metals-specific approximations of the entropy of fusion and the internal energy of a monatomic gas, and thus, do not apply to other materials. A new entropy metric is proposed that is universally applicable for crystalline materials, from simple solid-solution high-entropy alloys to high-entropy materials with complex crystal structures and multiple sublattices. Additionally, the methods for calculating configurational entropy in complex crystal structures are discussed. (c) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Acta Materialia Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )