1.Center of Electron Microscopy, State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
2.Pico Electron Microscopy Center, Innovation Institute for Ocean Materials Characterization Technology, Center for Advanced Studies on Precision Instruments, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China
High-entropy alloys have attracted much attention in recent years because of their unique structural characteristics and excellent mechanical properties.Originally, high-entropy alloys were considered to be ideal solid solutions with completely random element distributions. While recently, more and more studies have shown that inhomogeneity of element distribution exists widely in high-entropy alloys, including local chemical short-range ordering and element concentration fluctuations, which are collectively referred to as compositional heterogeneity here. It is of vital importance to understand the fine structure of compositional heterogeneity and its role in tuning mechanical behaviors of high-entropy alloys. In recent five years, lots of work probe into the mystery. In this paper, we briefly review the research on compositional heterogeneity in high-entropy alloys and its influence on the strengthening mechanisms and mechanical properties, and further prospect the future research in the relevant field.