Corrosion-Resistant Biomedical High-Entropy Alloys: A Review

Abstract

High-entropy alloys (HEAs) exhibit the outstanding properties, such as excellent antibacterial property, remarkable biocompatibility, and superior corrosion resistance, in the field of biomedical applications. Herein, the biomedical function of HEAs is summarized in aspects of the antibacterial behavior against planktonic gram-negative/gram-positive bacteria and biofilms, the biocompatibility inspired by low-cytotoxicity alloying elements. Considering the corrosive service environment of biomedical device, the corrosion behavior and mechanism are discussed in terms of alloying elements (Al, Ni, Cr, and Cu) and microstructure (phase composition and grain size). Additionally, the promising approaches to simultaneously achieve biomedical function and corrosion resistance, the possible application of additive manufacturing, and the prospective effects of short-range orderings on the corrosion resistance are simply discussed.