The simultaneous improvement of mechanical and corrosion resistance is of great significance for engineering applications. In this work, a novel lightweight amorphous structure AlTiVNb high-entropy alloy (HEA) film was fabricated by magnetron sputtering. The compression test of the AlTiVNb HEA film nanopillar exhibits a high compressive strength of up to 3.6 GPa and deformability approaching 58%. The high strength is affected by the disordered state, the nanostructure, and the lattice distortion effect, while the high ductility comes from the ductile shear band and the island structure. In addition, the AlTiVNb HEA film shows a current density of 4.90 × 10⁻⁸ A/cm² and a potential of −0.234 V in the 3.5% NaCl solution, comparable to that of the 316L stainless steel. The chemical disorder state, cocktail effect, and homogeneous amorphous structure contribute to excellent corrosion resistance. This finding offers new insights into high-performance HEA films with robust mechanical and anticorrosion performances for microelectronic devices and mechanical metamaterials.

Multi-component nitride thin films usually show high hardness and good wear resistance due to the nanoscale structure and solid-solution strengthening effect. However, the state of N atoms in the thin film and its effects on the compressive strength is still unclear. In this work, (AlTiVCr)N multi-component nitride thin films with a face-centered cubic (FCC) structure prepared by the direct current magnetron sputtering method exhibit a superior strength of ~4.5 GPa and final fracture at a strain of ~5.0%. The excellent mechanical properties are attributed to the synergistic effects of the nanocrystalline structure, covalent bonding between N and metal atoms, and interstitial strengthening. Our results could provide an intensive understanding of the relationship between microstructure and mechanical performances for multi-component nitride thin films, which may promote their applications in micro- and nano-devices.

Magnéli phases exhibit significant potential for applications in electronic materials in energy conversion due to their high electrical conductivity and excellent thermal stability. In this study, single-phase Ti_nO_2n−1 (n = 4, 5, 6) bulk materials were successfully prepared by a combination of the carbothermal reduction of nano-sized rutile TiO₂ and hot-press sintering methods. The relationships between the phase evolution, microstructural features, and thermoelectric performance were investigated systematically. Synchrotron X-ray diffraction (SXRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyses revealed that the Ti₄O₇ and Ti₅O₉ materials had single-phase structures with high densities (relative density > 97%) and no obvious grain boundary holes or microcracks. We tested the thermoelectric properties of the Magnéli phases in the temperature range of 300–1100 K. The Magnéli phases exhibited a significant temperature dependence, with peak zT values of 0.17, 0.18, and 0.14 for Ti₄O₇, Ti₅O₉, and Ti₆O₁₁, respectively, at 1100 K. This variation in thermoelectric performance was mainly attributed to the synergistic effect of the oxygen vacancy concentration and the shear surface density on the carrier concentration and lattice thermal conductivity. Furthermore, the Fermi energy levels and electronic thermal conductivity of the Magnéli phases were calculated using the single parabolic band (SPB) model.

The inherent temperature-dependent sublattice preference of constituent atoms in FCC_CoCuNi multi-principal element alloys (MPEAs) is theoretically predicted by combining a two-sublattice model based on the L12_AuCu3 prototype with computational thermodynamics, which extends beyond the commonly-believed, yet unreasonable randomly mixing solid solution hypothesis. Based on the predicted sublattice occupied fractions (SOFs) and available computer resource, two MPEAs atom distributing models with different sizes are established for different applications, respectively, where the bigger size model is further employed to analyze statistically the atom distributing character quantitatively and graphically, while the smaller size model is employed to study the lattice distortion of MPEAs further using first-principles calculations density functional theory. The atom distributing configurations of some representative heat treatment temperatures, as well as the hypothetical randomly mixing structure are compared. It is revealed that FCC_CoCuNi MPEAs exhibit strong temperature-dependent ordering behavior. The SOFs-based configurations are (Ni1.0000)1a(Co0.4445Cu0.4444Ni0.1111)3c, (Co0.0653Cu0.0721Ni0.8626)1a(Co0.4227Cu0.4204Ni0.1569)3c, and (Co0.1574Cu0.1593Ni0.6833)1a(Co0.3920Cu0.3913Ni0.2167)3c at 100 K, 900 K, and 1400 K, respectively. Overall, Ni atoms always prefer to 1a sublattice and the preference tendency reduce a little bit at considerable high temperatures. The configurational entropies of FCC_CoCuNi MPEAs increase with the increase of heat treatment temperature, while they are considerably lower than that of the hypothetical ideal random solid solution. Based on the atom distributing model of MPEAs, the local atomic cluster characteristics are further investigated by statistically analyzing the coordination numbers of the constituent atom coordinated with the same type of atoms. The radial distribution function (RDF) further verified the atom aggregating behavior. For most family of crystal planes in FCC_MPEAs, except {1 1 1}, there are obviously different atom distributing characters between the even and odd layers. The atom distributing model of some representative bulk structure and surface structure are afforded valuably for reference and application both in experimental and theoretical investigation further. Thus, rich and indispensable structural genome data are afforded for the further research and development of the promise FCC_CoCuNi MPEAs intensively.

1. With the rapid development of advanced aerospace and nuclear technologies, structural materials increasingly need to withstand extreme thermo-mechanical coupling environments, where high-tempera...