2018 Volume 59 Issue 6 Pages 922-926
Powder metallurgy route was employed to fabricate aluminum (Al) foams with open and small cells. Starch acetate powder was adopted as a space holder, which evaporates during carbonization and leaves behind pores in the Al matrix. Aluminum dihydrogen phosphate (ADP) was used as binding agent between Al particles in present work. Cell diameters of Al foams range from several microns to thousands of microns, and cell geometry depends mainly on the distribution of starch acetate particles during mixing process. The phase compositions were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) together with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) suggests the existence of carbon produced along cell wall after annealing. Subsequently, a uniaxial compression test was performed to study the effect of ADP content on mechanical properties and absorption abilities of Al foams. It is shown that both mechanical property and energy absorption ability are improved with appropriate amount of ADP.
