Development of high entropy alloys in Australia: a review

ABSTRACT

First reported in the early 2000s, a new generation of metals called ‘high-entropy alloys’ (HEAs) have the potential to outperform conventional alloys that rely on a primary base metal. The plethora of five or more metallic elements when alloyed in equiatomic or near equiatomic creates a vast HEA material hyperspace that can lead to exceptional technical properties. This paper provides insights into HEAdevelopment in Australia; in particular, the additive manufacturing of HEA deposits through thermal spray and laser-based methods.

KEYWORDS:

• High entropy alloy
• thermal spray
• coatings
• Additive manufacturing
• laser
• metal alloy
• HEA

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project 2021 under project DP210103318 titled “Design of Non-Equilibrium Architectures: Leveraging High Entropy Materials” and under the Industrial Transformation Training Centre project IC180100005 that is titled “Surface Engineering for Advanced Materials”, SEAM. We are grateful for the additional support for the industrial, university and other organization partners who have contributed to the establishment and support of SEAM.

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council [IC180100005, DP210103318].

Notes on contributors

Surinder Singh

Dr. Surinder Singhis a post-doctorate fellow at the Swinburne University of Technology. He received his Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Ropar India (2019) in Mechanical Engineering. Surinder has demonstrated a deep understanding of thick copper coatings deposited by cold spray and laser cladding technologies, which have potential applications in sectors related to public health, marine, energy, and automotive components. Based upon the quality of his research work, he was awarded a director’s fellowship during his Ph.D. He is also an excellent volunteer reviewer of academic journals in the field of manufacturing, and surface coatings.

Ashok Meghwal

Ashok Meghwal holds a Master of Science in Metallurgical Engineering from the RWTH Aachen University, Germany, in 2014 and is currently a PhD candidate at the Swinburne University of Technology, Australia. His research interest focuses on developing next-generation thermal spray coatings based on high entropy alloys (HEAs) and amorphous alloys for extreme engineering applications. He is also the student representative of the Australian Ceramic Society.

Paul Munroe

Professor Paul Munroe is currently at UNSW where he holds the positions of Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Deputy Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Science. He was awarded a B.Sc (Hons) and PhD in ‘Metallurgy and Materials’ from the University of Birmingham. He was formally Director of the Electron Microscope Unit at UNSW (2007-2013) and Head of School of Materials Science and Engineering (2013-2108) at UNSW.

Christopher C. Berndt

Professor Chris Berndt is the Director of Surface Engineering for Advanced Materials, SEAM. He has been involved in teaching and research within the materials engineering and mechanical engineering disciplines for 45-years. He has taken on leadership roles within professional societies, which includes the Presidency of ASM International and the Australian Ceramic Society.  He has impacted many thousands of undergraduates through his teaching, as well as some 60 graduate students and post docs. Berndt is especially proud of his students and post docs who have achieved professional prominence and earned good lives. Chris acknowledges their positive impact on his own career.

Andrew S. M. Ang

Dr Andrew Ang is a senior research engineer within the ARC Training Centre- Surface Engineering for Advanced Materials (SEAM) at Swinburne University of Technology. His core area of research is surface engineering and materials science; in particular focusing on the specialty subject of thermal spray coatings and additive manufacturing. Over the last 11 years, Andrew has established a strong track record in applied research with local Australian businesses under the theme of developing coating technology and has applied emerging coating methods, novel material alloy systems to solve challenging engineering problems for his industry partners.