A facile sintering-dissolution synthesis of high-porosity Cu foams with promising compressive strength

•Cu foams with bimodal porous structure and high porosity were prepared.•The 3Cu foam shows porosity of 91.2% and compressive strength of 11 MPa.•The Cu foams synthesized from this SD method are in open porous structure.

In this study, Cu foams with high porosity and bimodal porous structure were prepared from a facile sintering-dissolution process. The macropores originate from the dissolution of NaCl while the microsized pores derive from the physical accumulation of Cu particles. Porosity and pore structure of the Cu foams can be tailored by adjusting the raw powders in particle sizes and weight fraction. The foam with 30 wt% Cu content shows high porosity of 91.2% and centered pore size of 26 μm, which demonstrates promising compressive strength of 11 MPa as well.