Efforts in Applying High Entropy Alloying to Specific Metal-Atom Sites in Materials with the A15 Structure Type*

High entropy alloys (HEAs) are materials composed of multiple elements in almost equimolar proportions, resulting in a high entropy of mixing. These HEAs have been found to have enhanced mechanical properties, as compared to traditional alloys, such as hardness, wear resistance, mechanical strength, corrosion resistance, and high-temperature stability – making HEAs useful in harsh environments. Furthermore, HEAs are tunable, which means they respond well to chemical doping, which allows these alloys to be designed with specific properties for different applications. Currently, HEAs are being explored for many applications, such as in aircrafts, turbines, electronics, medical implants, and wear-resistant coatings. However, more recently, some of these materials have also shown superconductivity, and surprisingly, their transition temperatures are usually greater than those of the individual elements that compose the HEA. Due to this fact, combined with the other enhanced properties and possible uses for HEAs, our research goal is to synthesize and explore the properties of HEAs when applied to different structure types, specifically the A15 structure. This includes synthesizing the materials and characterizing their physical properties, where we are keenly focused on enhancing the superconductivity in A15 compounds through high entropy alloying.