Advanced ceramics from solid combustion-derived powders.

Solid combustion has been appreciated for its energy- and time saving features and the possibility to produce by this method refractory compounds. The range of products produced via solid combustion constantly increases. In the present paper it is shown that solid combustion permits to produce in a simple way composite powders which can advantageously be used for fabrication of advanced structural ceramics such as: i. materials with an interpenetrating (duplex) microstructure; ii. zero-dimensional nanocomposites; iii. nanolaminates. In these cases a use of solid combustion-derived composite powders results not only in an increased time- and energy- efficiency of the synthesis but also permits to simplify the processing.