High-Entropy Ceramics—A Promising Novel Material Class for Extreme Environments

Batteries required to operate under extreme conditions—such as high and low temperatures, corrosive environments, or high pressure—need more than just adequate shielding through protective casings and structural designs. They also rely heavily on active materials that maintain stability and performance under these harsh conditions. Traditional battery materials often face limitations in such environments, making the development of new materials a key focus in the field. One emerging material class that holds great promise for such applications is high-entropy ceramics, characterized by the incorporation of a variety of different elements within their unit cell. This unique multi-element composition provides a range of advantageous properties, including enhanced thermal stability, corrosion resistance, and mechanical robustness.
This talk will introduce this class of materials, highlighting their fundamental principles and the mechanisms that might enable them to function under extreme environmental conditions. Through selected case studies and experimental examples, it will be shown how high-entropy materials exhibit remarkable potential for battery applications and how these features could support battery operation in extreme environments. Both, the theoretical foundations behind the high-entropy concept and practical applications in the context of high-entropy cathode materials and high-entropy electrolytes will be explored.