Gasless Reactive Compositions for Materials Joining: An Overview

Some results of recent studies on materials joining by using exothermic reactive compositions that burn without notable gas evolution are overviewed. We also considered some possible routes to controlling wave propagation velocity in conditions of strong heat sink, to lowering ignition temperature for exothermic combustion reactions, and to improving the adhesion strength. The use of exothermic powder compositions opens up new horizons for combustion‐aided joining of materials, including refractory and dissimilar ones. Further advance in the field can be reached through mechanical activation (nanostucturing) of green compositions in ball mills and by cold rolling of reactive mixtures to fabricate reactive tapes. The examples of joining carbon materials, metals, and ceramic–metal pairs were presented. To date, the technique of combustion‐assisted joining of materials has become a promising and rapidly developing branch of modern R & D.