Fabrication and evaluation of oxidation resistance performance of open-celled Fe(Al) foam by space-holder technique

•Fabrication of open-celled porous Fe(Al) foam near to 65% porosity.•The oxidation resistance of 10 wt.% Al sample greatly improves compared to pure Fe.•The oxidation resistance performance promotes with increasing the milling time.•The increase of sintering temperature and soaked time improve oxidation resistance.

First, fabrication of Fe(Al) open-cell foams by using space-holder technique, in which NaCl powder and polyester resin were utilized as space holder and binder, was investigated. Fe(Al) powder were prepared via mechanical alloying method after 5 h milling process. Then, the influences of fabrication parameters, alloying element Al content, time of milling process, sintering temperature and soaked time on the oxidation resistance performance of foam specimens at 800 °C were mainly studied. The experimental results exhibit that alloying with 2 wt.% Al resulted in acceleration of the oxidation rate of foam samples, additionally, alloying with 4 wt.% Al had a little positive effect on oxidation rate at 800 °C. However, the oxidation resistance of the 10 wt.% Al-containing sample greatly improves compared to pure Fe. In addition, the oxidation resistance performance of prepared foam was improved by increasing the milling time up to 15 h, and followed by a decrease gradually. The increase of sintering temperature and the prolongation of soaked time to 1100 °C and 90 min, respectively had significant positive effect on the oxidation resistance.

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