Research Progress and Prospects of Corrosion-resistant High-entropy Alloy Coatings
Marine environments impose combined electrochemical, microbiological, and cavitation erosion degradation on metallic infrastructure, shortening service intervals and inflating maintenance expenditure. High-entropy alloy (HEA) coatings mitigate these failure modes through simple solid-solution or amorphous microstructures that suppress galvanic coupling and promote dense passive film formation. This review systematically examines corrosion-resistant HEA coatings from single-factor to multi-factor coupling perspectives, covering classification and compositional design, fabrication routes, and corrosion behavior under complex marine conditions. Key coating systems include FeCoCrNiMn, AlCoCrFeNi, FeCrNiCoAl, and (FeCoCrNi)75B15Si10 amorphous alloys deposited by atmospheric plasma spraying, high-velocity oxy-fuel spraying, and wire arc spraying. Elemental additions of Cr, Al, and Mo enhance passivation; B and Si promote amorphous phase formation. The review identifies core engineering bottlenecks: compositional design, process optimization, and service performance validation. A multi-scale simulation, process-structure optimization, and in-situ characterization framework is proposed to accelerate coating deployment. These findings provide theoretical and technical guidance for next-generation corrosion-resistant coatings in marine equipment.