A part includes a three-dimensional porous metallic workpiece printed via an additive manufacturing process and subsequently subjected to a diffusion-based process to convert at least a portion of the porous metallic workpiece to a ceramic workpiece or an intermetallic workpiece.

A process for producing a metal foam. The process includes mechanically working a metallic powder such that oxide particles and/or dissolved oxygen are finely dispersed within a metallic matrix of the metallic particles that make up the metallic powder. The mechanically worked metallic powder is then annealed in a reducing atmosphere, where the reducing atmosphere is an atmosphere that results in the reduction of oxide and/or dissolved oxygen into vapor or gas molecules such that intraparticle porosity is formed within the metallic matrix by conversion of the oxide particles and/or dissolved oxygen to create vapor or gas molecules.

A process for producing a metal foam. The process includes mechanically working a metallic powder such that oxide particles and/or dissolved oxygen are finely dispersed within a metallic matrix of the metallic particles that make up the metallic powder. The mechanically worked metallic powder is then annealed in a reducing atmosphere, where the reducing atmosphere is an atmosphere that results in the reduction of oxide and/or dissolved oxygen into vapor or gas molecules such that intraparticle porosity is formed within the metallic matrix by conversion of the oxide particles and/or dissolved oxygen to create vapor or gas molecules.

A porous copper sintered material (10) includes: a plurality of copper fibers (11) sintered each other, wherein the copper fibers (11) are made of copper or copper alloy, a diameter R of the copper fibers (11) is in a range of 0.02 mm or more and 1.0 mm or less, and a ratio L/R of a length L of the copper fibers to the diameter R is in a range of 4 or more and 2500 or less (11), redox layers (12) formed by redox treatment are provided on surfaces of copper fibers (11, 11), and concavities and convexities are formed by the redox layer (12), and each of redox layers (12, 12) formed on each of the copper fibers (11) is integrally bonded in a junction of the copper fibers (11).

This invention in one aspect relates to an iron-based foam usable for an electrochemical device, comprising a composition comprising iron and a refractory element processed to form the iron-based foam having a hierarchical porous structure with self-assembled channels for gas flow reactions and internal space to accommodate volumetric changes on oxidation.

The successful fabrication of alloy foam (or porous alloy) is very rare, despite their potentially better properties and wider applicability than pure metallic foams. The processing of three-dimensional copper-nickel alloy foams is achieved through a strategic solid-solution alloying method based on oxide powder reduction or sintering processes, or both. Solid-solution alloy foams with five different compositions are successfully created, resulting in open-pore structures with varied porosity. The corrosion resistance of the synthesized copper-nickel alloy foams is superior to those of the pure copper and nickel foams.

A porous copper body including a skeleton having a three-dimensional network structure is provided. An oxidation-reduction layer formed by an oxidation-reduction treatment is provided on a surface of the skeleton, and the oxygen concentration of the entirety of the skeleton is set to be 0.025 mass % or less.

An apparatus and process are presented for continuous production of metal-based micro-porous structures of pore sizes from 0.3 nm to 5.0 m from a green part of characteristic diffusion mass transfer dimension less than 1 mm through chemical reactions in a continuous flow of gas substantially free of oxygen. The produced micro-porous structures include i) thin porous metal sheets of thickness less than 200 m and pore sizes in the range of 0.1 to 5.0 m, ii) porous ceramic coating of thickness less than 40 m and ceramic particle sizes of 200 nm or less on a porous metal-based support structures of pore sizes in the range of 0.1 to 5 m.

A porous copper body including a skeleton having a three-dimensional network structure is provided. An oxidation-reduction layer formed by an oxidation-reduction treatment is provided on a surface of the skeleton, and the average crystal grain size of an entirety including the skeleton and the oxidation-reduction layer is 5% or more of the diameter of the skeleton.

A method of fabricating an article includes providing an arrangement of loose nanowires and bonding the loose nanowires in the presence of carbon together into a unitary cellular structure.