This analysis reveals an intrinsic stability-performance trade-off, where the disorder required to maximise the transformation driving force inevitably penalises thermodynamic stability, and proposes a hierarchical tuning strategy that decouples phase transition temperature from hysteresis, providing a scalable paradigm to transform HEA exploration from serendipitous discovery into rational design.
Abstract
The vast compositional space of high-entropy alloys (HEA) holds promise for next-generation functional materials, yet its exploration is stifled by a combinatorial bottleneck: conventional first-principles accuracy is computationally prohibitive for complex disordered lattices, while black-box machine learning (ML) lacks physical interpretability. We overcome this by establishing a minimal-supercell principle, demonstrating that the magnetostructural behaviour is an emergent feature of local atomic environments rather than long-range configurations. This enables a physics-informed ML framework that inverts the conventional screening approach, transitioning from limited local identification to global design-space mapping, reducing computational time by 40 – 60% without compromising accuracy. Applying this framework to MM’X family uncovers a fundamental design dichotomy: mean electronic descriptors govern baseline phase stability, while dispersion descriptors, specifically the magnetic-moment dispersion, drive the critical transformation response. This analysis reveals an intrinsic stability-performance trade-off, where the disorder required to maximise the transformation driving force inevitably penalises thermodynamic stability. By quantifying this Pareto frontier, we propose a hierarchical tuning strategy that decouples phase transition temperature from hysteresis, providing a scalable paradigm to transform HEA exploration from serendipitous discovery into rational design.
This review aims to provide a comprehensive perspective on the ongoing transition from conventional DFT-based simulations toward scalable, statistically rigorous, and predictive atomistic modeling frameworks for HEAs and related compositionally complex materials.
Yuji Ikeda, Xiang Xu, Pranav Kumar et al.· Journal of Materials Science· 0 citations
High-entropy alloys (HEAs) possess exceptional mechanical properties and thermal stability, yet their vast compositional space and complex atomic arrangements present significant challenges for property prediction and design. To overcome this, we have trained a machine-learned interatomic potential (MLIP) for the AlTiCrMoW HEA using the message-passing atomic cluster expansion (MACE) framework. This new MLIP is trained on a series of high-accuracy density functional theory (DFT) calculations that covers the available configuration space of the HEA. The training set includes key configurations with linear-response-informed short-range ordered configurations, which are generated using a concentration wave analysis within the coherent potential approximation (CPA) and subsequently optimizedd using conventional DFT calculations. Phonon bispersion ands (PDBs) for the HEA are generated using the MACE model, and several physical properties are extracted for the HEA, such as the elastic constants and the bulk modulus. The fine-tuned model reproduces DFT structural and elastic benchmarks with high accuracy, at a significantly reduced computational cost, allowing for larger simulations to be performed, which can more accurately probe the configuration space and composition of the alloy. Here, we perform Monte Carlo based simulations to identify the ordering transition of equiatomic AlTiCrMoW, where we match the experimental value of 1273 K. Vacancy relaxation volumes are investigated for AlTiCrMoW, as an example of a property analysis, which would be computationally intractable via DFT.
Joseph E. Arnold, C. D. Woodgate, Roohollah Hafizi et al.· PHYSICAL REVIEW MATERIALS· 1 citation
The sluggish kinetics of the ammonia oxidation reaction constitute a critical bottleneck in the development of low‐temperature direct ammonia fuel cells. High‐entropy alloys (HEAs), owing to their diverse active sites, have emerged as promising catalysts. However, their vast compositional space makes traditional quantum chemical screening prohibitively expensive. In this study, we provide a computational proof of concept showing that the classical
d
‐band center theory fails to predict the ammonia oxidation activity of quinary HEAs and exhibits a negligible correlation with the energy barrier of the rate‐determining step. To address this limitation, we employed the Sure Independence Screening and Sparsifying Operator (SISSO) method to construct a transparent and interpretable symbolic descriptor, achieving excellent predictive accuracy (
R
2
= 0.981) within the range of the training data. This descriptor extends beyond simple single‐electron parameters by integrating the synergistic effects of electron‐donating ability, lattice stiffness, and local electronegativity perturbations. This data‐driven approach reduces computational costs by several orders of magnitude relative to exhaustive density functional theory (DFT) screening and identifies an “isolated‐surrounded” geometric configuration as a highly active site that significantly enhances intrinsic catalytic activity from a thermodynamic perspective. Crucially, the predicted motif should be interpreted within the hydrazine‐mediated thermodynamic framework used here, and its thermodynamic superiority may shift if alternative kinetic pathways dominate under operating conditions. This structural motif promotes efficient NN coupling while suppressing site poisoning. Overall, this study provides a coordination chemistry‐based blueprint for the rational design of next‐generation catalysts with reduced platinum‐group‐metal content and offers a theoretical framework for future experimental validation.
Shangfeng Jiang, Ting Tao, Kexiang Guo et al.· ENERGY & ENVIRONMENTAL M...· 0 citations
The prediction of stable alloys forming solid-state solutions across large portions of the composition space is a serious theoretical challenge, since one has to evaluate the Gibbs free energy, including both configurational and vibrational contributions. This requires an energy theory capable of extremely high throughput. By taking the Ni-Pd system as prototype, we construct an efficient Jacobi-Legendre machine-learning potential based on density-functional-theory data, which provides accurate energies and forces across the entire composition space. Based on a cluster expansion up to three-body terms and only 873 trainable parameters, this allows us to compute the partition function by directly integrating all accessible microstates, differing for composition, atomic configuration and thermal agitation. We confirm that Ni and Pd are fully miscible, forming an $fcc$ solid-state solution. This is only metastable at room temperature, while becomes thermodynamically stable at around 600~K, with the stability achieved first at the Pd-rich end of the composition range. Interestingly, entropy and heat capacity analysis reveal a competition between the solid-state solution and two intermetallic phases with long-period L1$_0$ structure for NiPd and NiPd$_3$. All in all, our approach offers a powerful and high-throughput workflow for the study of disordered alloys, an approach that can be extended to multi-component systems such as high-entropy alloys.
Rutchapon Hunkao, U. Patil, S. Sanvito· 0 citations
It is argued that developing thermodynamics-informed ML constitutes one of the most important and least explored frontiers in materials discovery and that the next generation of ML models must move beyond static energy predictions towards a thermodynamic description of materials behaviour under realistic operating conditions.
Pol Benítez, Cibr'an L'opez, Claudio Cazorla· 0 citations
Superconductors with high critical temperatures that emerges beyond the phonon-mediated regime are usually considered unconventional in nature, yet unlike conventional superconductors, no broadly applicable predictive theory currently guides their discovery. Here, we use interpretable machine learning to uncover a common materials-space signature of high-$T_{\mathrm{c}}$ unconventional superconductors and develop a data-driven strategy for materials discovery. We construct a unified feature representation for each material by integrating compositional statistics, structural information, and latent representations from trained property-prediction models, followed by structure-aware filtering of an experimentally established superconducting dataset. Without using transition-temperature information, unsupervised analysis shows that cuprate and iron-based superconductors occupy a common region of materials space, characterized primarily by large electronegativity deviation and intermediate mean valence-electron number. A supervised $T_{\text{c}}$ model independently identifies the same descriptors as dominant features, providing complementary evidence for their relevance. Using this empirical materials-space prior together with the $T_{\text{c}}$ model, we prioritize candidate materials, recover recently discovered nickelate superconductors, and identify chemically distinct candidates for future investigation.
Haosheng Xu, Dongheng Qian, Yi-Jun Yu et al.· 0 citations
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