Controlling reaction transfer between Al/Ni reactive multilayer elements on substrates

Abstract Reactive multilayers produce exothermic reaction with definite velocity and maximum temperature after ignition, which are the fundamental properties of the reactive multilayer systems. The generated heat with certain velocity makes it widely used in joining, bonding in the packaging, thermal batteries and many more applications. In this work, a distinct approach for achieving a reaction transfer between the reactive multilayers and different materials is demonstrated which can affect the generated temperature and velocity from the self-propagating properties of the reaction. For these intensions, we fabricated the Al/Ni reactive elements with certain separations between elements which allow to observe the reaction front transfer and emitted temperature in the reaction chain. The created separation between reactive elements are periodical and ordered systems with different thermal conductive properties. The temperature and definite velocity were measured by time-resolved pyrometer and high-speed camera measurements. SEM analysis showed the characteristics of the reaction transfer between reactive multilayer elements. It is predicted that: (I) The reaction front stops at a space with critical length; (II) Reducing heat loss through the substrate supports reaction front propagation through spaces; (III) Thermal property design of the spaces between the reactive elements enables property modification of the self-propagating reaction. Graphical abstract