Metallic porous materials have many interesting combinations of physical and geometrical properties with very low specific weight or high gas permeability. In this study, highly porous Cu foam is successfully fabricated by a slurry coating process. The Cu foam is fabricated specifically by changing the coating amount and the type of polyurethane foam used as a template. The processing parameters and pore characteristics are observed to identify the key parameters of the slurry coating process and the optimized morphological properties of the Cu foam. The pore characteristics of Cu foam are investigated by scanning electron micrographs and micro-CT analyzer, and air permeability of the Cu foam is measured by capillary flow porometer. We confirmed that the characteristics of Cu foam can be easily controlled in the slurry coating process by changing the microstructure, porosity, pore size, strut thickness, and the cell size. It can be considered that the fabricated Cu foams show tremendous promise for industrial application.

Metal foams have a cellular structure consisting of a solid metal containing a large volume fraction ofpores. In particular, open, penetrating pores are necessary for industrial applications such as in high temperature filtersand as a support for catalysts. In this study, Fe foam with above 90% porosity and 2 millimeter pore size was suc-cessfully fabricated by a slurry coating process and the pore properties were characterized. The Fe and Fe2O3 powdermixing ratios were controlled to produce Fe foams with different pore size and porosity. First, the slurry was preparedby uniform mixing with powders, distilled water and polyvinyl alcohol(PVA). After slurry coating on the polyure-thane(PU) foam, the sample was dried at 80℃. The PVA and PU foams were then removed by heating at 700℃ for 3hours. The debinded samples were subsequently sintered at 1250℃ with a holding time of 3 hours under hydrogenatmosphere. The three dimensional geometries of the obtained Fe foams with an open cell structure were investigatedusing X-ray micro CT(computed tomography) as well as the pore morphology, size and phase. The coated amount ofslurry on the PU foam were increased with Fe2O3 mixing powder ratio but the shrinkage and porosity of Fe foams weredecreased with Fe2O3 mixing powder ratio.

Fe foam with above 90% porosity and 2 millimeter pore size was successfully fabricated by a slurry coating process. In this study, the binder contents were controlled to produce the Fe foam with different pore size, strut thickness and porosity. Firstly, the slurry was prepared by uniform mixing with Fe powders, distilled water and polyvinyl alcohol(PVA) as initial materials. After slurry coating on the polyurethane(PU) foam the sample was dried at 80oC. The PVA and PU foams were then removed by heating at 700oC for 3 hours. The debinded samples were subsequently sintered at 1250oC with holding time of 3 hours under hydrogen atmosphere. The three dimensional geometries of the obtained Fe foams with open cell structure were investigated using X-ray micro CT(computed tomography) as well as the pore morphology, size and phase.