A review of preparation methods, friction and wear, corrosion, and biocompatibility of biomedical high-entropy alloys

In recent decades, biomedical materials have received increasing attention and are widely used in medical applications, such as implantable prostheses, tissue repair, and regeneration, to advance patient care. As implants continue to be applied in clinical settings, the design requirements for new biocompatible alloys also increase. Therefore, developing new materials with high strength, low modulus, and good biocompatibility is a continuous demand in the field of surgical implants. By breaking the classical alloy design concept, high-entropy alloys (HEAs) have a unique lattice structure, which is a solid solution randomly arranged with multiple elements. The special locally disordered chemical environment is expected to make the alloy has excellent yield strength, wear resistance, corrosion resistance, and biocompatibility. Hence, this review summarizes the research on HEAs in biomedical applications, mainly focusing on their preparation methods, wear resistance, corrosion resistance, as well as in vivo and in vitro implantation. It aims to provide valuable reference for material researchers in the application research of biomedical materials.