Low-cost method of the highly porous iron sintering

Abstract

This paper reports a study of low-cost method relating to the preparation of well defined porous iron-based materials. We employed the technique where the impressed iron oxide powder is sintered. We changed the specific volume fraction of sodium chloride as a primary pore forming additive to achieve the total porosity up to 70 % and effective/total porosity rate in a ratio of 0.89 with interconnected pores. The investigations of physical properties with respect to the particle size distribution, powder morphology, density, volume contraction and both effective and total porosity were carried out by laser diffraction (LD), pycnometric measurement, atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and optical microscopy. Porous iron sintered electrodes represent a suitable alternative to the expensive nickel electrodes.