History and recent developments in SHS

Abstract

In a search for new patterns of combustion, I. P. Borovinskaya, V. M. Shkiro, and the author in 1967 made a scientific discovery that was later termed ‘solid flame phenomenon’. The solid flame represents a special pattern of combustion when all of the compounds involved — starting, final, and possibly intermediate — are present in their solid state even at maximum combustion temperatures. It was also found that the products of solid flame represented valuable refractory compounds: carbides, borides, etc. This circumstance has lead to the development of a new production method for manufacturing refractory compounds, the self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS). Since that time, a wealth of work was carried out in the Soviet Union and then in other countries (USA, Japan) which made SHS a leading branch of research and development. The fundamentals of SHS were formulated, a huge number of intended chemical syntheses were performed, original production methods and equipment were developed, medium-scale production was implemented into industry, and the basic concepts of SHS commercialization were formulated. From the solid-flame-driven method of synthesizing refractory compounds of limited potentiality, SHS became a powerful technology of inorganic materials, in which combustion of various compounds synthesized compounds and designs materials. The following items will be considered in the paper: (1) History of SHS: from a scientific discovery to producing materials; (2) SHS precursors (the theory and methodology of combustion, exothermic processes in the practice of pyrotechnics, metallurgy, and preparatory chemistry); (3) Some examples of the newest achievements in the field of SHS (structuring in SHS products, synthesis of complex compounds, growth of single crystals from SHS products, development of functionally gradient materials, the gas-phase SHS, in-line SHS production, etc.).