Combinatorial Approaches: Phase Diagrams

Mapping out phase diagrams has been the essential subject of materials science. This review focuses on the construction of phase diagrams and composition–structure–property relationships of complex materials by employing combinatorial approaches based on composition-spread methods. Techniques for fabricating composition spreads are briefly described. Illustrated by various application examples, the composition-spread based combinatorial approaches have proven to be a powerful tool to rapidly construct phase diagrams and delineate composition–structure–property relationships. Hence, material compositions with enhanced properties can be efficiently identified, accelerating the exploration of novel alloys for disparate application fields ranging from engineering materials to functional materials.