SHS in the UK: Past, Present, and Future Directions

The United Kingdom has played a small but significant role in the development of SHS. Parkin and Kuznetsov have studied the formation of complex oxides in external fields. Wood and Christanthou have studied the formation of intermetallic compounds and refractory materials by SHS. Perry, Thompson, and Green have made contributions to the synthesis of materials by solution phase auto-combustion reactions. The UK has also made contributions to the theory of SHS and the monitoring of SHS reactions by time resolved X-ray, neutron, and thermal imaging studies. The UK has been at the forefront in the development of a sub-class of SHS reactions termed solid state metathesis.