Combustion synthesis is an attractive technique to synthesize a wide variety of advanced materials including powders and near-net shape products of ceramics, intermetallics, composites, and functionally graded materials. This method was discovered in the former Soviet Union by Merzhanov et al. (1971). The development of this technique by Merzhanov and coworkers led to the appearance of a new scientijc direction that incorporates both aspects of combustion and materials science. At about the same time, some work concerning the combustion aspects of this method was also done in the United States (Booth, 1953; Walton and Poulos, 1959; Hardt and Phung, 1973). However, the full potential of combustion synthesis in the production of advanced materials was not utilized. The scientijc and technological activity in thejeld picked up in the United States during the 1980s. The signijcant results of combustion synthesis have been described in a number of review articles (e.g., Munir and Anselmi-Tamburini, 1989; Merzhanov, I990a; Holt and Dunmead, 1991; Rice, 1991; Varma and Lebrat, 1992; Merzhanov, 1993b; Moore and Feng, 1995). At the present time, scientists and engineers in many other countries are also involved in research and further development of combustion synthesis, and interesting theoretical, experimental, and technological results have been reported from various parts of the world (see SHS Bibliography, 1996). This review article summarizes the state of the art in combustion synthesis, from both the scientijc and technological points of view. In this context, we discuss wide-ranging topics including theory, phenomenology, and mechanisms of product structure formation, as well as types and properties of product synthesized, and methods for large-scale materials production by combustion synthesis technique.

Solution-combustion is an attractive approach to synthesis of nanomaterials for a variety of applications, including catalysts, fuel cells, and biotechnology. In this paper, several novel methods based on the combustion of a reactive solution are presented. These methods include self-propagating sol-gel combustion and combustion of impregnated inert and active supports. It was demonstrated that, based on the fundamental understanding of the considered combustion processes, a variety of extremely high surface area materials could be synthesized. The controlling process parameters are defined and discussed. Examples of materials synthesized by the above methods are presented. For the first time, a continuous technology for production of nanopowders by using the solution combustion approach is demonstrated.