Morphological Study of Directionally Freeze-Cast Nickel Foams

Abstract

Nickel foams, consisting of 51 to 62 pct aligned, elongated pores surrounded by a network of Ni walls, were fabricated by reduction and sintering of directionally cast suspensions of nanometric NiO powders in water. Use of dispersant in the slurry considerably affected the foam morphology and microstructure at both the micro- and macro-scale, most likely by modifying ice solidification into dendrites (creating the aligned, elongated macro-pores) and NiO powder accumulation in the inter-dendritic space (creating the Ni walls with micro-pores). The mean width of the Ni walls, in foams solidified with and without dispersant, was 21 ± 5 and 75 ± 13 µm, respectively. Additionally, the foams with the dispersant showed less dense walls and rougher surfaces than those without the dispersant. Moreover, the fraction of closed pores present in the foam walls with the dispersant was higher than that of the samples without dispersant. We finally verified the potential energy application of the Ni foam produced in this study by carrying out a preliminary single-cell performance test with the Ni foam sample as the gas diffusion layer on the anode side of a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell.