Oxidation processes in the air and at heating-up of cobalt and nickel nanopowders have been examined. The nanopowders have been produced by chemical deposition of their hydroxides from salt solutions followed by reduction in hydrogen current at various temperatures. 

The processes to produce nanosized tungsten carbide powders as well as other transition metal carbides have been investigated with the use of plasma-chemical reduction synthesis. The basic regularities of producing powders of specified dispersion and composition have been determined. Characteristic particle sizes of carbides are 40–80 nm. For the purpose of homogeneous WC–Со nanopowders mixture production with exact mass content, a technique of cobalt sedimentation onto tungsten carbide powder with simultaneous adding of retardant-carbides such as chromium, va- nadium, and tantalum carbides has been developed. The produced nanopowders have been examined with modern methods including high-reso- lution SEM and fractional gas analysis. 

High-speed consolidation of pure tungsten carbide powders by electropulse plasma sintering («Spark Plasma Sintering») has been carried out. The effect of initial WC nanoparticle size and their production conditions on density, structural parameters, and mechanical properties of tungsten car- bide has been studied. Samples of high-density nano-structural tungsten carbide with high hardness (up to 31 GPa) and crack growth resistance (5,2 MPa ∙ m1/2) are obtained. 

The features of VK5 grade WC-Co hard metal sintering have been studied in using tungsten carbide powder as feed stock, which are produced by self- propagating high-temperature synthesis. The physicochemical processes during sintering of hard metals are found to be similar to sintering process- es of standard alloys from traditional tungsten carbide powders. Produced in the present work, hard metal has high hardness, strength, and crack growth resistance being characteristic for quasi-nanocrystalline materials. 

The process of self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS) of titanium carbide particles in aluminum melt containing the mixture of titani- um and carbon powders with addition of chloride-containing flux, aluminum or halide salt (Na2TiF6) powders in it has been investigated in produc- ing Al–10%TiC composite alloy. The use of the additives is shown to allow diminishing the size of synthesized TiС carbide phase particles to ultrafine (0,17–0,35 μm) and nanosized (less than 0,1 μm) levels. 

Cast eutectic alloys on the basis of nickel aluminide of the equimolar NiAl-Mo (Cr, V, Nb) composition with alloyed additives of boron and hafnium have been produced by centrifugal SHS-metallurgy. It is found experimentally that the acceleration range of 150–200 g is the most readily producible. The convective movement of melt downstream of the combustion front under the effect of gravitation is shown to result in burning rate increase, com- plete chemical interaction in the combustion wave and composition homogenization in the combustion product melt volume. As established, the al- loys have composite structure of NiAl-grain with insignificant amount boride inclusions (MoВ, V(Cr)B, Mo(Nb)B2) uniformly distributed in the ground- mass consisting of β/γ-eutectics. The density does not exceed 6,7 g/cm3 for all four examined compositions. 

Combustion of «silicon – sodium azide – ammonium hexafluorosilicate – carbon – aluminum» powder mixture in the nitrogen atmosphere has been investigated. The conditions of self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS) of silicon carbide nanopowder composition with silicon nitride whiskers and flux have been determines. The composition can be used as a modifier of casting aluminum alloys and reinforcing phase in age-hardened aluminomatrix composites. 

Isothermal sections of the Ti–Al–Nb–Cr and Ti–Al–Nb–Mo systems in a range of temperatures from 1100 °C to 1400 °C as regard to hot isostatic pressing process of two characteristic alloys on the basis of γ-TiAl (48-2-2 type and TNM) have been calculated. Their phase composition including mass fractions of different phases (α, β, γ) is shown to depend strongly on the hot isostatic pressing temperature. Taken TNM alloy as an example, it is shown that the experimental data confirm the calculation results as a whole. 

The work is devoted to the synthesis and investigation of ceramic material on the basis of Mo5SiB2 chemical compound (T2-phase). The effect of initial temperature on key parameters of combustion process is shown. It is found that reaction mixture preheating allows initiating combustion in the self-oscillatory mode, thus initial temperature dependences of combustion temperature and rate have linear character. The effective SHS- process activation energy value is calculated. Some variants of chemical reactions between Mo, Si and B are proposed for explanation of the com- bustion mechanism in the examined ternary system. Compact samples are obtained using the power SHS-compaction. The phase composition, structure, and properties of synthesized ceramic materials, in which Mo5SiB2 grains are the basic component with average size of 10–20 μm, have been studied. The lines of Mo3Si and Mo intermediate phases, which total fraction does not exceed 4 %, are identified as well. The produced T2- phase based material possesses high specific density and hardness. 

The opportunity of the powdered Fe–Cu–Co–Sn–P system alloy modification with multilayer carbon nanotubes (MCNT), fullerenes, nano- and ultra- sized diamonds for the purpose of composite material development with elevated mechanical properties, which can be used as bond for diamond cutter tools, has been considered. As a result of the spent experiments it is determined that the material containing 0,01 % MCNT possesses the best complex of mechanical properties: hardness increases by 14 HRB, three-point bending strength up to 40 % (in comparison with initial alloy). The exe- cuted bench tests of diamond drills have shown tool-life gain up to 40 % with simultaneous increase in productivity up to 50 %. 

The effect of silicon on oxidation resistance of Mo–Si–B–N coatings produced by magnetron sputtering has been investigated. The silicon content was controlled with the composite target composition as well as with various area of silicon segments put in the target erosion zone. Using TEM, SEM-EDS, and GDOES, the composition and structure of the coatings have been studied after deposition and after exposition in the air at tempera- tures of 500–1300 °C. Caused by formation of dense top-layer based on silicon oxide, oxidation resistance is found to increase when silicon concen- tration raises in the coatings, thus preventing oxygen penetration deep into the coatings at heating. The maximum oxidation resistance at a level of 1300 °C can be reached in Mo–Si–B–N coatings containing 40 at.% Si. 

Using electrospark sedimentation, coatings with high content of MAX-phase has been obtained in applying Cr2AlC electrode materials onto titani- um substrate. Structural-phase conditions of the coatings formed at different modes have been studied. A layer of titanium carbide is found to be formed at the initial stage of formation of the coating as a result of chemical reaction between Cr2AlC electrode and titanium substrate, which ac- complishes the positive role of a diffusive barrier. 

The work describes the combined effect on the structure and physical-mechanical properties of hot-pressed Fe-Mo alloy of two factors: 1) updating of the alloy by WC powder alloying addition by means of mechanical activation of the mixture; 2) combinations of mix material granules containing the alloying addition and without it. The concentration hardening limit of the alloy in nano-modifying as well as the opportunity of producing mate- rial with high impact strength and elastic modulus at the specified granule combination were found. 

The present work is devoted to the study of hardness, density, wear resistance of metal matrix samples and the abrasive ability of truing diamond tool. Diamond-containing and diamond-free samples of 14 mm in diameter and 7 mm high of the following compositions: W–Cu, W–C–Cu, W–C–Co–Cu have been produced with the use of the infiltration method at temperatures of 1100–1150 °C for 15 min in the hydrogen environment. Synthetic dia- monds of SDB 1100 40/50 grade were used in the experiments. It has been established during the investigation that the increase in abrasive resis- tance of metal matrices leads to elevation of abrasive ability of the truing diamond tool. It is proved by the experiments that the porosity (up to 4 %) of the diamond tool matrices exercises strong impact on their abrasive resistance and weak one on their hardness.