Reinforcing Open Cell Aluminum Foams by Amorphous Ni-P Coating

Open cell aluminum foams are a promising multi-functional material that has potential application in a variety of engineering fields, but their too low mechanical properties may restrict their applications in some load bearing conditions. To overcome this shortcoming, enhancement methods have been widely investigated in recent years including surface enhancement technologies. In the present study, an electrodeposition process was utilized to coat an amorphous Ni-P coating on the cell strut surface of open cell aluminum foams. The results show that the coated film exhibits typical amorphous feature and is thermally stable. The average nanohardness and Young’s modulus are 7.0GPa and 118.1GPa, respectively, in which the Young’s modulus is even 1.6 times higher than that of aluminum (70GPa). It is because the high strength film that leads to significantly enhancement of the foams. The compression strength of the foam was increased from about 0.2MPa to 11.9MPa when the film thickness was around 65μm. These results demonstrate that the surface coating does be an effective way to improve the mechanical properties of open cell aluminum foams.