Complex behavior of self-propagating reaction waves in heterogeneous media.

Self-propagating high temperature reaction waves, leading to the synthesis of advanced materials, are investigated in a variety of heterogeneous reaction systems by using a digital high-speed microscopic video recording technique. It is shown that, although on the macroscopic length and time scales, the reaction appears to move in a steady mode, on the microscopic level it has a complex character that is related to the reaction mechanism.