For years, we have been told not to put metals in the microwave. A close examination of the literature, however, reveals that powdered metals can be used to synthesize a wide variety of compounds in a microwave. Carbides, borides, halides, nitrides, and chalcogenides have all been prepared via solid-state microwave synthesis from precursors that included powdered metals, metal oxides, or metal halides. A logical extension of this work would be to synthesize intermetallic compounds via the solid-state microwave synthetic method. However, the current understanding of the interactions of solids with microwaves has limited the use of this method for the preparation of intermetallics.
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