| About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
MS&T21: Materials Science & Technology
|
| Symposium
|
Synthesis, Characterization, Modeling and Applications of Functional Porous Materials
|
| Presentation Title |
Microporous Copper Spheres: Processing, Morphology, and Application |
| Author(s) |
Braden Jones, Beck Boan, Mark Atwater |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Braden Jones |
| Abstract Scope |
Porous metals have many applications including lightweight structural components and functional enhancement. Here we combine first-time results in producing, characterizing, and applying foamable millimeter-scale Cu spheres. When a Cu-CuO mixture is ball milled under the appropriate conditions, the resulting product is comprised of copper spheres with selectable size. Annealing in the presence of argon and/or hydrogen at temperatures greater than 600 °C results in porosity within the spheres, and when spheres are compacted together, a hierarchical pore structure results. The strength of these sintered structures can be enhanced by transient liquid-phase sintering. This is accomplished by using the Cu spheres as the milling media to ball mill a lower melting temperature metal, such as aluminum. This results in aluminum coated Cu spheres that can be processed identically to pure Cu through annealing and sintering, but which exhibits higher strength. The strategies, findings, and implications for commercial development will be discussed. |