Fabrication of Porous Copper with Uniform Pore Size by Friction Powder Compaction Process

Abstract

Open-cell porous copper (Cu) was fabricated by friction powder compaction (FPC) process, which requires no external heat sources. In this process, a mixture of Cu powder and sodium chloride (NaCl) powder as spacer particle was used as starting materials. The compacting of the powder mixture was conducted only by rotating tool plunged into the mixture. NaCl was removed by placing the sintered mixture in water, and pores were formed. Porous Cu with porosities of 60-80 % was successfully fabricated. In this study, a relationship between leaching time and removal of NaCl were investigated, and pore structures of obtained porous Cu were nondestructively observed by X-ray CT. In addition the compressive properties of obtained porous Cu were investigated.