Accelerated Discovery of Nanocrystalline High-Entropy Alloys with High Strength and Thermal Stability

Nanocrystalline (nc) metals are generally strong yet thermally unstable. High-entropy alloy (HEA) design stabilizes nanocrystalline materials and leads grain boundary hardening. electrodeposition is a relatively low-cost, highly scalable fabrication route for nanocrystalline materials that can be applied to almost any substrate shape or material, which also has industrial-scale infrastructure already in place. Here, we report the first comprehensive study on the synthesis and characterization of electrodeposited HEAs made from aqueous electrolytes, building on the groundwork of past work on electrodeposited HEAs. In addition, we also develop a combinatorial strategy to accelerate the discovery of nc-refractory HEA library with distinct thermal stability. Our study continues to build a framework for paving the way for developing new high-strength, thermally stable, and scalable nanostructured materials.