A central goal of global climate strategies is to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by the middle of this century. To achieve this goal, shifting from fossil fuels to cleaner, renewable energy sources is needed. Traditional materials used in batteries, fuel cells, and solar panels have limited long-term use because they often rely on scarce or expensive elements and tend to degrade quickly under harsh conditions. Therefore, clean energy systems require more durable, efficient, and environmentally friendly materials.
To overcome the limitations of traditional materials, researchers are developing high-entropy materials (HEMs), which exhibit exceptional strength, chemical stability, and versatility. HEMs are emerging as transformative materials for energy generation, storage, and conversion, contributing to a more sustainable future.
Image Credit: Scharfsinn/Shutterstock.com
What Are High-Entropy Materials?
HEMs comprise five or more principal elements in near-equiatomic ratios, unlike conventional materials that rely on one or two dominant components. Their multi-elemental design provides high configurational entropy, which favors the formation of stable solid-solution phases over phase-separated structures.
HEMs include various material types, such as high-entropy alloys (HEAs), high-entropy oxides (HEOs), carbides, nitrides, and borides, each with distinct properties and specific applications. For instance, HEAs offer excellent mechanical strength and thermal stability, while HEOs demonstrate promising electrochemical and catalytic behavior. A key advantage of HEMs is the ability to vary composition and structure, which enables fine-tuning their physical, chemical, and electronic properties for specific applications.1,2
Key Properties That Make Them Ideal for Energy Applications
HEMs exhibit exceptional properties that make them highly attractive for energy-related applications. They have remarkable thermal and structural stability even under extreme temperatures and operating conditions.
A key advantage of HEMs is their strong resistance to corrosion and oxidation. This significantly extends the operational lifespan of materials in harsh chemical or atmospheric environments, making HEMs ideal for long-term use in conditions where conventional materials degrade rapidly.
Their electronic and ionic conductivities can also be precisely tuned for specific energy roles by varying the elemental composition. HEMs also display excellent mechanical strength and fatigue resistance, making them well-suited for high-load or high-temperature systems.1
Applications in Battery Technology
Due to their tunable chemistry and structural robustness, HEMs are used as advanced anode and cathode materials in lithium-ion and sodium-ion batteries. They offer improved cycling stability and strong resistance to capacity fade over repeated charge-discharge cycles.
HEOs and related compounds can also be used as solid-state electrolytes to develop high-capacity, durable, and thermally stable next-generation batteries. Their multi-element composition results in numerous redox-active sites, which enhance charge storage capacity and rate performance. Their resistance to dendrite formation and degradation under voltage stress enhances both efficiency and safety.1,4
Fuel cells and electrocatalysis
HEMs are emerging as effective electrocatalysts, especially in oxygen reduction (ORR) and hydrogen evolution reactions (HER). Due to their long-term stability and lower cost, HEMs outperform traditional noble-metal catalysts such as platinum in both acidic and alkaline environments. Their complex and variable composition allows for precise tuning of surface adsorption energies to enhance the reaction kinetics.
Notably, HEMs demonstrate excellent corrosion resistance and structural integrity under harsh electrochemical conditions, making them ideal for use in proton-exchange membrane (PEM) and alkaline fuel cells, supporting efficient and durable clean energy conversion.2,3,5
Hydrogen storage and production
High-entropy materials (HEMs) are showing real promise for hydrogen storage. Their adjustable interstitial sites make it easier for hydrogen to be absorbed and released. Compared to traditional hydrides, HEM hydrides offer higher storage capacity, faster reaction rates, and more practical hydrogen release conditions.
In hydrogen production, HEMs show strong potential as electrocatalysts in water-splitting reactions. These materials also maintain structural integrity and catalytic activity over multiple cycles, which is critical for sustained operation in electrolyzers. Several HEM-based catalysts demonstrate performance comparable to or better than noble metals, while offering greater cost-effectiveness and durability.1,5
Environmental and Economic Advantages of High-Entropy Materials
HEMs align with the goals of sustainable energy development as they do not rely on scarce elements such as cobalt, platinum, and other noble metals, which are often expensive. HEMs offer compositional flexibility, enabling the incorporation of earth-abundant and less toxic elements without sacrificing performance, thus lowering material costs.
The exceptional stability and durability of HEMs contribute to longer material lifetimes, which reduces the need for frequent replacement and minimizes associated waste and environmental impact. Moreover, the broad design space enabled by the multi-element nature of HEMs offers greater freedom to tailor materials for specific applications, optimizing performance while controlling costs.1
Challenges in Scaling and Commercialization of HEMs
Despite their potential, HEMs face numerous challenges in large-scale production and commercialization. One of the major challenges is their complex fabrication processes. Techniques such as arc melting and spark plasma sintering are often used to create uniform and stable materials, but these methods are expensive and energy-intensive, and difficult to implement on an industrial scale.
Maintaining consistent homogeneity and phase stability during large-scale production remains challenging. Moreover, the current understanding is based on lab-scale studies, with limited real-world validation. There is also an urgent need for standardized testing protocols to evaluate HEM-based devices' long-term performance, durability, and safety.1
Recent HEM Advances and Case Studies
Recent developments in HEMs have significantly enhanced their applications in energy technologies. A study published in Energy Storage Materials introduced a surface high-entropy strategy for lithium-rich manganese-based oxide cathodes. By incorporating multiple transition metals on the cathode surface, the material achieved better reversibility of oxygen redox reactions and improved structural stability, resulting in enhanced cycling performance.4
According to a recent report in Chemical Communications, a quinary RuRhPdPtAu HEA synthesized via an electrochemical method exhibits high entropy and abundant surface-active sites, demonstrating outstanding electrocatalytic activity for the hydrogen evolution reaction.5
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are revolutionizing HEM discovery. Transformer-based ML models have been developed to predict the mechanical properties of HEAs, enabling more efficient screening and optimization of compositions for specific applications.6,7
With ongoing research and AI-driven design, HEMs are rapidly advancing clean energy systems. Owing to their unique versatility and performance, these materials hold tremendous potential to accelerate the global transition toward sustainable energy solutions.
References and Further Reading
- Qiu, G., et al. (2025). High entropy powering green energy: Hydrogen, batteries, electronics, and catalysis. npj Computational Materials, 11, 145. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41524-025-01594-6
- Kamaruddin, H., et al. (2024). A review of noble metal-free high-entropy alloys for water splitting applications. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 12, 9933–9961. https://doi.org/10.1039/D4TA00690A
- Wang, Z., et al. (2024). High-entropy materials: Potential catalysts for electrochemical water splitting. Green Chemistry, 26(18), 9569–9598. https://doi.org/10.1039/D4GC02329C
- Liu, H., & et al. (2024). Oxygen vacancy engineering for high-performance Li-rich Mn-based oxide cathodes. Energy Storage Materials, 71, 101417. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ensm.2025.104321
- Zhang, X., & et al. (2023). Quinary RuRhPdPtAu high-entropy alloy as an efficient electrocatalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction. Chemical Communications, 59(90), 11845–11848. https://doi.org/10.1039/D3CC04162J
- Batzner, S., & et al. (2023). Scaling deep learning for materials discovery. Nature, 624(7990), 80–85. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06735-9
- Kamnis, S., & Delibasis, K. (2024). High Entropy Alloy Property Predictions Using Transformer-Based Language Model. arXiv preprint arXiv:2411.04861. https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.04861
Disclaimer: The views expressed here are those of the author expressed in their private capacity and do not necessarily represent the views of AZoM.com Limited T/A AZoNetwork the owner and operator of this website. This disclaimer forms part of the Terms and conditions of use of this website.