Reaction instabilities in Co/Al nanolaminates due to chemical kinetics variation over micron-scales

The reaction front dynamics of Co/Al reactive nanolaminates were studied as a function of the initial temperature of the unreacted material. Sample geometries that exhibit stable reaction fronts as well as geometries that present "spinning" reaction front instabilities were investigated at initial temperatures ranging from room temperature to 200 degrees C. It was found that reactions in samples with small reactant periodicities (<66.4 nm) were stable at all temperatures, reaction in large periodicity samples (>= 100 nm) were unstable at all temperatures, and reactions in samples with intermediate periodicities transitioned from unstable behavior to stable behavior with increasing initial temperature. The results suggest that behaviors typical of two types of reaction kinetics are present in unstable reaction fronts: slow, diffusion-limited kinetics in the regions between transverse reaction bands, and a faster mechanism at the leading edge of the transverse bands. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.