High-entropy glass materials: formation mechanisms, processing pathways, and emerging applications
• Maps formation, processing, and applications of diverse high-entropy glasses. • Reveals roles of electronic, magnetic, and vibrational entropies in stability. • Analyzes additive manufacturing routes and LLM-driven research trends. • Highlights unprecedented catalytic, magnetic, and mechanical properties. • Provides a theoretical framework for rationally designing next-generation HEGs. High-entropy glass materials are gaining attention because they combine useful properties for energy, electronic, and biomedical applications. Building on crystalline high-entropy alloys, the introduction of amorphous multi-component structures opens new ways to tune material properties, much like metallic glasses did in the past. This review discusses how high-entropy metallic, oxide, and organic glasses form, focusing on entropy stabilization, structure–property relationships, and advanced processing methods. Despite recent breakthroughs—such as ultra-hard oxide glasses and high-performance catalytic organic systems—the field still faces challenges in understanding non-configurational entropy contributions (electronic, magnetic, and vibrational) that affect phase stability. Tackling these theoretical issues is essential for moving beyond empirical design toward a rational, entropy-driven approach for developing next-generation glass materials in metallic, ceramic, and polymeric systems.
Authors
- Fenglin Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5872-2693)
- Chenglei Huang
- Ming Huang
- Zhuofeng Liu
- Wei Li
- Xingyu Chen
- Weijun Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8179-7028)
- Yongxing Hu
- Haijun Mao
Institutions
- National University of Defense Technology (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Materials & Design
- Published
- 2026-04-25
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2026.116085
- Primary Topic
- High Entropy Alloys Studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00