It will likely be difficult to commercially exploit high-entropy alloys (HEAs) in most engineering structural applications where steels, Al alloys or Mg alloys have a strong foothold, because HEAs are unlikely to be able to compete in terms of price and/or specific properties.
Furthermore, the opportunity to tune the compositions of HEAs over a large range to optimise particular irradiation responses could be very powerful, even if the design process remains challenging. Nevertheless, there may be some mechanisms and effects that are uniquely different in HEAs when compared to more conventional alloys, such as the effect that their poor thermal conductivities have on the displacement cascade. A number of studies have suggested that HEAs possess ‘special’ irradiation damage resistance, although some of the proposed mechanisms, such as those based on sluggish diffusion and lattice distortion, remain somewhat unconvincing (certainly in terms of being universally applicable to all HEAs). It is found that our understanding of the irradiation responses of HEAs remains in its infancy, and much work is needed in order for our knowledge of any single HEA system to match our understanding of conventional alloys such as austenitic steels.
This review assesses the work done to date in the field of HEAs for nuclear applications, provides critical insight into the conclusions drawn, and highlights possibilities and challenges for future study. The expanded compositional freedom afforded by high-entropy alloys (HEAs) represents a unique opportunity for the design of alloys for advanced nuclear applications, in particular for applications where current engineering alloys fall short.
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