Recent Progress in Molecular Orbital Approach to Alloy Design

Abstract

A molecular orbital approach to alloy design has recently made great progress. This approach is based on the electronic structure calculations by the DV-Xα molecular orbital method. New PHACOMP and the d-electrons concept have been constructed and applied to alloy design. Recently, nickel-based single crystal superalloys for power generation gas turbine blades and high Cr ferritic steels for turbine rotors have been developed successfully with this approach.