Coating of Granular Polymeric Spacers with Copper by Sputter-Deposition for Enhancing Cell Wall Structure of Sintered Highly Porous Aluminum Materials

Abstract

The deposition of copper onto acrylic resin powder in its self-convective motion by magnetron DC sputtering was examined in order to prepare granular polymeric spacers coated with the metal, aiming at enhancing the cell wall structure of sintered highly porous aluminum materials. The fabrication of sintered highly porous aluminum materials was carried out in an ordinary powder metallurgy processing combined with a space-holder method with the polymer-copper binary spacer granules prepared by powder-coating using the sputter-deposition technique. The effects of the sputter-deposition of copper onto the spherical polymeric spacers on cell structures of the sintered porous compacts were investigated. According to optical observations, it was found that the sputtered copper could be uniformly and adherently deposited onto the surface of the acrylic granules. According to EPMA analysis on the cross-section on a sintered porous compact, it was found that Cu atoms were distributed at the vicinity of its cell walls, concluding that cell wall structures could be enhanced by this processing. Therefore it was expected that the compressive properties of the sintered highly porous aluminum materials were also improved by this powder coating process.