High-Entropy Alloys for Biomedical Applications
Summary
High-entropy alloys (HEAs) represent a paradigm shift in metallic biomaterials, leveraging multicomponent equimolar compositions to achieve unprecedented combinations of mechanical resilience, corrosion resistance and biocompatibility. By balancing thermodynamic parameters such as mixing enthalpy, atomic size difference and valence electron concentration, researchers have stabilised simple solid-solution phases—typically body-centred cubic or face-centred cubic lattices—that minimise deleterious intermetallic formation and elemental segregation. These alloys exhibit elastic moduli tuned to approximate cortical bone, yield strengths exceeding those of conventional titanium and stainless-steel implants, and remarkable wear and corrosion resistance in physiological conditions. Processing techniques span arc melting, powder metallurgy and advanced additive manufacturing, enabling patient-specific geometries and porous scaffolds to promote osseointegration. Owing to their tunable composition–structure–property relationships, HEAs are under intense global investigation for orthopaedic, dental and cardiovascular devices, with the goal of mitigating stress shielding and enhancing long-term implant stability.
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High-Entropy Alloys for Biomedical Applications publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in high-entropy alloys for biomedical applications across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
High-entropy alloy: An alloy composed of five or more principal elements in near-equimolar ratios, where high configurational entropy stabilises simple solid-solution phases.
Biocompatibility: The ability of a material to perform with an appropriate biological response and without eliciting toxicity or adverse effects.
Selective laser melting (SLM): An additive manufacturing technique using a focused laser to fuse metal powders layer by layer, producing dense, customised components.
Valence electron concentration (VEC): The average number of valence electrons per atom in an alloy, used to predict and control phase stability between different crystal structures.
Young’s modulus: A measure of elastic stiffness defined as the ratio of applied stress to resultant strain in the linear deformation region.
Body-centred cubic (bcc): A crystal structure with atoms at the corners and a single atom at the centre of a cubic unit cell, commonly observed in HEAs.
References
- Development of TiNbTaZrMo bio-high entropy alloy (BioHEA) super-solid solution by selective laser melting, and its improved mechanical property and biocompatibility. Scripta Materialia (2021).
- Fundamental electronic structure and multiatomic bonding in 13 biocompatible high-entropy alloys. npj Computational Materials (2020).
- An Overview of High-Entropy Alloys as Biomaterials. Metals (2021).
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