What is it about?
We demonstrated how to make a copper foam with a very low density (2.5% dense) with ligament dimensions in the 100's of nm dimensions. Starting with an electrospun polymer containing metal acetates, we convert the polymer mesh to a copper oxide foam, and then reduce the ceramic foam to a metal. The resulting structure has a hierarchical structure, with rough and porous ligaments forming a larger foam, and the foam ligaments are polycrystalline. The foam is extremely compliant and flexible.
Featured Image
Why is it important?
The polymer templated foam fabrication method allows us to control a large space of density, and the "foam of foam" structure means we have a very larger surface area in the foam. This could be useful for filtering and catalysis.
Perspectives
Not often do we work on a paper that has polymers, metals, AND ceramics (which of course we then proceed to measure using nanoindentation).
David F Bahr
Purdue University System
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Synthesis, microstructure, and mechanical properties of polycrystalline Cu nano-foam, MRS Advances, January 2018, Cambridge University Press,
DOI: 10.1557/adv.2018.128.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page