Innovative surface modification of TiH2 to fabricate aluminum foam with enhanced mechanical properties

In this paper, an innovative modification method for TiH2 foaming agent was presented and Boron phenolic resin (BPR)-TiH2 foaming agent was successfully prepared for the first time. The result shows that the BPR-TiH2 foaming agent has an excellent slow-release property which can last longer than 120 s. And Al foam with uniform pore dispersion and high compressive strength was also successfully prepared by melt foaming method using BPR-TiH2 as foaming agent. Whats more, Al foam prepared with BPR-TiH2 foaming agent (BPR-TiH2 Al foam) was better than Al foam prepared with TiH2 foaming agent in terms of compressive strength and energy absorption, the compressive strength and energy absorption of Al foam prepared with BPR-TiH2 foaming agent are 4.6 MPa and 3.15 × 106J/m3(compression strain was 55%), which are 324% and 123% higher than that of TiH2 foaming agent respectively, due to the uniform pore dispersion.