High entropy oxides: mapping the landscape from fundamentals to future vistas

High-entropy materials (HEMs) are typically crystalline, phase-pure and configurationally disordered materials that contain at least five elements evenly blended into a solid-solution framework. The discovery of high-entropy alloys (HEAs) and high-entropy oxides (HEOs) disrupted traditional notions in materials science, providing avenues for the exploration of new materials, property optimization, and the pursuit of advanced applications. While there has been significant research on HEAs, the creative breakthroughs in HEOs are still being revealed. This focus review aims at developing a structured framework for expressing the concept of HEM, with special emphasis on the crystal structure and functional properties of HEOs. Insights into the recent synthetic advances, that foster prospective outcomes and their current applications in electrocatalysis, and battery, are comprehensively discussed. Further, it sheds light on the existing constraints in HEOs, highlights the adoption of theoretical and experimental tools to tackle challenges, while delineates potential directions for exploration in energy application.