Configurational entropy: the key to corrosion resistance in new Palladium-based metallic glasses

Yating Zhou, a predoctoral researcher at the Department of Physics of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) and the Institute of Energy Technologies (INTE), has published her first scientific article as lead author. This milestone was achieved in one of the most prominent journals in chemical engineering, the Chemical Engineering Journal, which boasts a high impact factor of 13.3 (2023 data), underscoring the excellence of the research conducted at the institute.

The study, a collaboration with Tohoku University (Japan) and Northwestern Polytechnical University (China), explores how configurational entropy influences the durability of metallic glasses. The research focuses on Palladium (Pd)-based High-Entropy Metallic Glasses (HE-MGs), which possess unique properties due to their atomic disorder.

Key research findings:

Superior resistance: The study demonstrates that the corrosion current density of the high-entropy metallic glass is only about 0.3% of that of a traditional ternary metallic glass with lower entropy.

Protection mechanism: Using X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), the researchers found that high entropy facilitates the formation of an extremely stable and dense oxide film that protects the material from dissolution in acidic environments.

A new design pathway: The study establishes a direct correlation between binding energy and corrosion resistance, proving that controlling high-entropy characteristics is a powerful tool for designing new materials with unprecedented durability.

This work Influence of configurational entropy on the corrosion resistance of Pd-based metallic glasses provides a new scientific perspective on how atomic order and chemical complexity can be used to improve the service life of metallic materials in aggressive environments, opening the door to more sustainable and efficient future technological applications.