Electrochemical Fabrication of Porous Interconnected Copper Foam
An interconnected copper network or copper foam was successfully fabricated by electrochemical deposition using polyethylene glycol (PEG) and sodium bromide (NaBr) as additives. Both the amount of PEG and the current density were varied to obtain a Cu foam with the smallest pore diameter and wall thickness. The increasing amount of PEG resulted in a decrease in pore diameter. However, the wall thickness of the Cu network was increased. At 800 mg/L PEG and 20 mM NaBr, the average pore size of the foam was about 11.03 µm. Dendritic formation was also observed on the walls of the Cu foam. Further, higher current density resulted in increased dendritic growth. X-ray diffraction confirms that the Cu foam was spontaneously oxidized in air, leading to the formation of cuprous oxide (Cu2O).