In this study, porous Mo-5 wt% Cu with unidirectionally aligned pores is prepared by freeze drying of camphene slurry with MoO3-CuO powders. Unidirectional freezing of camphene slurry with dispersion stability is conducted at -25℃, and pores in the frozen specimens are generated by sublimation of the camphene crystals. The green bodies are hydrogen-reduced at 750℃ and sintered at 1000℃ for 1 h. X-ray diffraction analysis reveals that MoO3- CuO composite powders are completely converted to a Mo-and-Cu phase without any reaction phases by hydrogen reduction. The sintered bodies with the Mo-Cu phase show large and aligned parallel pores to the camphene growth direction as well as small pores in the internal walls of large pores. The pore size and porosity decrease with increasing composite powder content from 5 to 10 vol%. The change of pore characteristics is explained by the degree of powder rearrangement in slurry and the accumulation behavior of powders in the interdendritic spaces of solidified camphene.

Freeze drying for porous Mo was accomplished by using MoO3 powder as the source and camphor-naph- thalene eutectic system as the sublimable material. Eutectic composition of camphor-naphthalene slurries with the initial MoO3 content of 5 vol%, prepared by milling at 55o C with a small amount of oligomeric dispersant, was frozen at -25o C. The addition of dispersant showed improvement of dispersion stability in slurries. Pores were generated subse- quently by sublimation of the camphor-naphthalene during drying in air for 48 h. To convert the MoO3 to metallic Mo, the green body was hydrogen-reduced at 750o C, and sintered at 1100o C for 2 h. The sintered samples, frozen by heated Teflon cylinder, showed large pores with the size of about 40 µm which were aligned parallel to the sublimable vehicles growth direction. The formation of unidirectionally aligned pores is explained by the rejection and accumulation of solid particles in the serrated solid-liquid interface.

In order to fabricate the porous Mo with controlled pore characteristics, unique processing by using powder as the source and camphene as the sublimable material is introduced. Camphene-based 15 vol% slurries, prepared by milling at with a small amount of dispersant, were frozen at . Pores were generated subsequently by sublimation of the camphene during drying in air for 48 h. The green body was hydrogen-reduced at , and sintered at for 1 h. After heat treatment in hydrogen atmosphere, powders were completely converted to metallic W without any reaction phases. The sintered samples showed large pores with the size of about which were aligned parallel to the camphene growth direction. Also, the internal wall of large pores and near bottom part of specimen had relatively small pores due to the difference in the camphene growth rate during freezing process. The size of small pores was decreased with increase in sintering temperature, while that of large pores was unchanged. The results are strongly suggested that the porous metal with required pore characteristics can be successfully fabricated by freeze-drying process using metal oxide powders.