Local Structure in High-Entropy Transition Metal Diborides
Abstract
Studies on high-entropy materials often speculate about the effects of lattice distortion and disorder on characteristics such as hardness, thermal expansion, and electronic properties. Notwithstanding the ongoing race to discover new compositions, investigations of the local structure at the atomic level remain sparse at best. Additionally, assessments of the homogeneity of the distribution of metals within the lattice sites are often restricted to techniques such as energy dispersive spectroscopy which might lead to an inaccurate picture of the bulk material. Herein, we report an extensive and systematic study of a class of emerging high-entropy ceramics that uses a combination of high-resolution synchrotron powder diffraction and extended X-ray absorption fine structure analysis. Our data are consistent with a random distribution of atoms with local strain around the d-metals sites, which describes the bulk structure of these materials. Moreover, a linear trend is observed between the average structure and the first-neighbour distances, regardless the number (from 3 to 5) and type (Ti, Zr, Nb, Hf, Ta, Mo, W) of metals that constitute the high-entropy ceramic, which suggests that any description of properties for such materials need to go beyond the simple dichotomy of long-range order and local structure.
Recommended Citation
M. Gaboardi et al., "Local Structure in High-Entropy Transition Metal Diborides," Acta Materialia, vol. 239, article no. 118294, Elsevier, Oct 2022.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2022.118294
Department(s)
Materials Science and Engineering
Keywords and Phrases
0000; 1111; EXAFS; High-Entropy Materials; X-Ray Diffraction
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
1359-6454
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Citation
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2022 Elsevier, All rights reserved.
Publication Date
15 Oct 2022
Comments
We are grateful to Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste for providing beamtime and financial support for the XRPD and EXAFS experiments (proposals nr. 20200101 and 20200077). The effort of L. Feng, W. Fahrenholtz and G. Hilmas was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation through grant CMMI-1902069.