PREFACE

Research on high-entropy alloys is presently very active worldwide since its discovery 20 years ago. Those alloys dealt with in the recent studies include not only single-phase solid-solution alloys stabilized by the high configurational entropy but also multi-phase multi-component concentrated alloys. Exotic cocktail effects arising from non-linear interactions among various constituent elements are expected to generate peculiar materials properties, and some alloys with excellent materials properties such as high strength/ductility and high-temperature strength are indeed invented. The identification of materials property expression behind the cocktail effects is one of the most challenging topics in materials science. For this purpose, Grant-in Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Area, ‘High-Entropy Alloys: New Scientific Principle for Controlling Variety and Inhomogeneity of Elements’ has been launched in 2018 as a 5-year research project supported by MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) of Japan.

This special issue is intended to provide some outcomes from the above-mentioned project, as a follow up of the first special issue on the same subject published in 2020 (Materials Transactions, Vol. 61 (2020), No. 4). I sincerely and strongly hope that this special issue would make an opportunity to attract potential contributors to this research field and to ignite the activity of this research field, in particular in Japan.

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• June 26, 2024
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• Guest Editor
• Haruyuki Inui
• Professor, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan