Electro-deposition of graphene on aluminium open cell metal foams

•Electrodepositions of copper and graphene on aluminium open-cell foams was developed.•Two models of graphene electrodeposition have been proposed and validated.•The mechanical and thermal characterizations were performed.

This manuscript deals with the electro-deposition of graphene on open cell aluminium foams. It was tried to combine the superior features of stiffness and conduction of the graphene to aluminium foam. Metallic foams are highly porous materials, which present complex structure of three-dimensional open cells. This aspect causes strong limitations in mass transport due to electro-deposition technology. A novel method of electro-deposition at low temperature was developed. First, experimental tests were performed to study the influence of the operational parameters on the overall performance of the coated aluminium foams. Each sample was electro-deposited in three steps, or phases: first copper, than graphene and copper and finally copper again. Second, a mechanical and thermal characterization of the produced samples was leaded through a mechanical test machine and conductivity tests. Finally, on the basis of the experimental results, a semi experimental model of the evolution of deposition process of graphene was proposed. The experimental findings revealed that the manufactured metal foams were characterized by a higher mechanical resistance and thermal conductivity and low process costs, making these materials very promising in many technological fields.