Ph.D. student solves persistent problem in high-entropy alloys

Key Points:

• Lauren Kim, a University of Wyoming Ph.D. graduate, has developed a novel method to identify the surface local chemical ordering in high-entropy alloys, a breakthrough published in Nature Communications.
• High-entropy alloys, composed of five or more elements in nearly equal proportions, offer enhanced strength, corrosion resistance, and thermal stability, but their atomic arrangement has been difficult to precisely determine until now.
• Kim's team used surface-sensitive scanning tunneling microscopy combined with density functional theory calculations to directly observe and characterize the atomic-scale chemical ordering on the surfaces of these alloys.
• This advancement allows for better control of alloy properties, potentially enabling the design of custom materials with superior mechanical strength and stability for applications in engineering, electronics, energy, and cryogenics.
• The research was a collaborative effort involving experts from multiple universities, building on foundational work by Jien-Wei Yeh, who first demonstrated the stability of high-entropy alloys over 20 years ago.