- Cui, Mingjin;
- Yang, Chunpeng;
- Hwang, Sooyeon;
- Yang, Menghao;
- Overa, Sean;
- Dong, Qi;
- Yao, Yonggang;
- Brozena, Alexandra H;
- Cullen, David A;
- Chi, Miaofang;
- Blum, Thomas F;
- Morris, David;
- Finfrock, Zou;
- Wang, Xizheng;
- Zhang, Peng;
- Goncharov, Vitaliy G;
- Guo, Xiaofeng;
- Luo, Jian;
- Mo, Yifei;
- Jiao, Feng;
- Hu, Liangbing
Nanoscale multi-principal element intermetallics (MPEIs) may provide a broad and tunable compositional space of active, high-surface area materials with potential applications such as catalysis and magnetics. However, MPEI nanoparticles are challenging to fabricate because of the tendency of the particles to grow/agglomerate or phase-separated during annealing. Here, we demonstrate a disorder-to-order phase transition approach that enables the synthesis of ultrasmall (4 to 5 nm) and stable MPEI nanoparticles (up to eight elements). We apply just 5 min of Joule heating to promote the phase transition of the nanoparticles into L10 intermetallic structure, which is then preserved by rapidly cooling. This disorder-to-order transition results in phase-stable nanoscale MPEIs with compositions (e.g., PtPdAuFeCoNiCuSn), which have not been previously attained by traditional synthetic methods. This synthesis strategy offers a new paradigm for developing previously unexplored MPEI nanoparticles by accessing a nanoscale-size regime and novel compositions with potentially broad applications.