Control of the morphology of electrodeposited three-dimensional copper foam by tuning the pressure

Abstract

Three-dimensional (3D) copper foams have been formed by electrodeposition at different nitrogen pressures and examined by scanning electron microscopy. The results indicate that an increase in system pressure leads to a decrease of the pore size of the copper foam due to the suppressed coalescence of hydrogen bubbles, while the thickness of the copper foam increases with decreasing pressure. Also, the walls around the pores on the copper foam consist of copper dendrites, and the copper dendrites are made up of copper grains with sizes less than 1 μm. The average sizes of the copper grains decrease with increasing system pressure. It has been demonstrated that copper foams with controllable 3D structure formed by electrodeposition at different pressures are comparable to those obtained by electrodeposition at normal pressure in the presence of specific additives.