TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A research team from National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) has established the world's first high-entropy alloy nanocrystal database.

According to a Thursday (Oct. 24) press release, the database serves as a guide for various combinations of high-entropy materials, enabling more effective control, prediction, and development of new high-entropy alloys. The team also developed a technique to control crystal growth using dropwise addition.

High entropy alloys are a class of metals made by mixing five or more elements, per CNA. They have properties like corrosion resistance and thermal stability.

Professor Yang Tung-han (楊東翰) from the Department of Chemical Engineering said high-entropy nanocrystals, with their larger surface area and better catalytic performance, offer nearly “infinite” combinations. However, it’s difficult to control their solubility due to their complex composition.

Yang said the team developed a method similar to forming pearls around a nucleus, then dropwise adding a mixed solution of metal ions like iron onto the nucleus. Nanocrystals produced this way can change their atomic arrangement into various shapes such as a honeycomb.

Yang said with this database, new high-entropy alloys can be more effectively controlled and developed. His team’s findings have been published in Science Advances.