Abstract
Porous Cu with a dispersion of nanoscale $Al_2O_3$ particles is fabricated by freeze-drying $CuO-Al_2O_3$/camphene slurry and sintering. Camphene slurries with $CuO-Al_2O_3$ contents of 5 and 10 vol% are unidirectionally frozen at $-30^{\circ}C$, and pores are generated in the frozen specimens by camphene sublimation during air drying. The green bodies are sintered for 1 h at $700^{\circ}C$ and $800^{\circ}C$ in $H_2$ atmosphere. The sintered samples show large pores of $100{\mu}m$ in average size aligned parallel to the camphene growth direction. The internal walls of the large pores feature relatively small pores of ${\sim}10{\mu}m$ in size. The size of the large pores decreases with increasing $CuO-Al_2O_3$ content by the changing degree of powder rearrangement in the slurry. The size of the small pores decreases with increasing sintering temperature. Microstructural analysis reveals that 100-nm $Al_2O_3$ particles are homogeneously dispersed in the Cu matrix. These results suggest that a porous composite body with aligned large pores could be fabricated by a freeze-drying and $H_2$ reducing process.