Commercially viable process for manufacturing nanostructured high-entropy alloys

Canadian researchers working with the Canadian Light Source at the University of Saskatchewan have found a cost effective way to make the metals.

Nanostructured high-entropy alloys – metals made from a chaotic mix of several different elements – show a lot of promise for use in industries such as aerospace and automotive because of their strength and stability at high temperatures. However, so far they have expensive and energy-intensive to produce.

New research from Michel Haché, a materials engineer at the University of Toronto, and colleagues confirms that electrodeposition is a cost-effective and easily scaled way to produce these alloys.

The alloys could be useful for making tools or parts for applications where temperatures and mechanical stresses can be extremely high says Haché. ‘Anywhere that we are trying to push materials to their absolute limits,’ he says.

The findings are published in the journal Surface and Coatings Technology.