s A Novel Method for Fabricating Fe-Cr-Al Open-cell Metallic and Alloyed Foams

A new fabrication process for generating open-cell metallic and alloyed foams was developed by combining electrical explosion of wire (EEW) and electrospray (ESP) techniques. Fe-Cr-Al alloy nano-powders prepared by EEW in ethanol were used as a starting material, and commercial polyurethane (PU) sponges were used as templates. Fe-Cr-Al foams were successfully fabricated with porosities greater than 90%. The porosity of the fabricated foams was controlled by spraying time during the ESP process. As spraying time increased from 1 to 5 h, porosity decreased from 97 to 90%. The sintered foam possessed a continuous open-cell structure, which was dependent on the structure of the PU template. The proposed method may be useful in the future as a simple means to fabricate open-cell porous materials.