Copper foam is a porous material that has potential for application in heterogeneous catalysis, because of its massive surface area and excellent thermal properties. Among other applications, it can be used to create filtering elements for water treatment, nickel-zinc batteries, or electric double-layer capacitors. It also has the advantage of being non-toxic to humans. However, the fatigue characteristics of porous copper foam have been unknown. In this article, a new type of copper metal foam is developed, and its tensile fatigue performance under various strain amplitudes has been investigated. The results show that the pore size plays an important role in fatigue behavior. A smaller pore size reduces the load-induced damage and extends the fatigue life.

porous copper foams were made by a combination of sponge replication and freezing technique using PU templates. The influence of the processing temperature on the strut microstructure, porosity, specific surface area, yield strength, absorbed energy, and thermal conductivity of the foams was studied. Foams processed at 900 degC displayed improved particle joining due to a higher temperature-induced hydration of the powder particles and reduced agglomeration, but had lower pore density.

The addition of a small amount of extra strut porosity significantly increased the specific surface area of the copper foams. However, the average heat flow did not increase much with a large increment in pore density, and the sensitivities of the evaluation parameters gradually decreased with increasing pore density. These observations indicate that a porous copper foam with a high pore density is not suitable for high load with active materials.