The effect of sublimable vehicles on the pore structure of Cu fabricated by freeze drying is investigated. The 5 vol% CuO-dispersed slurries with camphene and various camphor-naphthalene compositions are frozen in a Teflon mold at -25oC, followed by sublimation at room temperature. After hydrogen reduction at 300oC and sintering at 600 °C, the green bodies of CuO are completely converted to Cu with various pore structures. The sintered samples prepared using CuO/camphene slurries show large pores that are aligned parallel to the sublimable vehicle growth direction. In addition, a dense microstructure is observed in the bottom section of the specimen where the solidification heat was released, owing to the difference in the solidification behavior of the camphene crystals. The porous Cu shows different pore structures, such as dendritic, rod-like, and plate shaped, depending on the composition of the camphornaphthalene system. The change in pore structure is explained by the crystal growth behavior of primary camphor and eutectic and primary naphthalene. Keywords: Porous Cu, Pore structure

The present study demonstrates the effect of solidification condition on the pore structure in freeze drying process using the slurries of CuOlimable vehicles. Camphene and Camphor-45 wt% naphthalene based slurries with 14 vol% CuO powder were frozen into a mold at -25℃<, followed by sublimation at room temperature. The green bodies were hydrogen-reduced and sintered at 500℃ for 1 h. The porous Cu specimen, frozen the CuO/camphene slurry into the heated mold of the upper part, showed large pores with unidirectional pore channels and small pores in their internal wall. Also, it was observed that the size of large pores was decreasing near the bottom part of specimen. The change of pore structure depending on the freezing condition was explained by the nucleation behavior of camphene crystals and rearrangement of solid powders during solidification. In case of porous Cu prepared from CuO/Camphor-naphthalene system, the pore structure exhibited plate shape as a replica of the original structure of crystallized vehicles with hypereutectic composition.