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Product Summary of Lost Carbonate Sintering (LCS) Porous Copper Foam
Goodfellow is delighted to announce the addition of an exciting new product to our range – LCS copper foam.
What is LCS Copper foam?
Unlike the copper foams we have had in our catalogue for several years, which are a permeable structure of cells and continuous ligaments with pore sizes of 4 to 16 pores /cm (10 to 40 PPI) and a relative density of around 9%, this new foam has much smaller pores (300 to 600µm) and a relative density of around 37%. This gives it a much higher surface area.
New LCS Copper Foam
Traditional Copper Foams from Goodfellow
Properties
|
CHARACTERISTICS |
New LCS Copper Foam |
Other Copper Foams available from Goodfellow |
|---|---|---|
|
Material |
Copper 99.7% |
Copper 99.9% |
|
Standard catalogue sizes |
5mm thick x 50mm x 64mm 10mm thick x 50mm x 64mm 4mm thick x 23mm diameter (other sizes on request) |
6.35mm thick x 150mm x 150mm (other sizes on request) |
|
Standard cladding |
None |
None |
|
Cladding thickness |
Not applicable |
Not applicable |
|
Standard cell size |
300 to 600µm 10 to 20 pores/cm (25 to 50 PPI) |
4 to 16 pores/cm (10 to 40 PPI) |
|
Other available cell sizes |
200 to 300µm, 630 to 1000µm |
2 pores/cm (5 PPI) |
|
Foam topology |
Randomly distributed, interconnected pores |
Randomly distributed, interconnected pores |
|
Relative density |
37% |
5 to 12% |
|
Nominal density |
3.32 g/cm3 |
0.45 to 1.08 g/cm3 |
|
Relative surface area |
24 mm2/mm3 (24000 m2/m3) |
200 to 2000m2/m3 |
|
Maximum service temperature |
1080°C |
1080°C |
|
Compression strength |
- |
0.903 MPa‡ |
|
Tensile strength |
13 MPa |
6.9 MPa‡ |
|
Modulus of elasticity |
22 GPa (tension) |
736 MPa‡ |
|
Shear modulus |
9 GPa |
282 MPa‡ |
|
Specific heat |
385 J/kg.K |
385 J/kg.K |
|
Bulk thermal conductivity |
7 to 43 W.m-1.K-1 |
10.1 W.m-1.K-1 ‡ |
|
Coefficient of thermal expansion |
16.5 µm.m-1.K-1 |
16.5 µm.m-1.K-1 ‡ (20 to 100°C) |
|
Bulk resistivity |
2.8 * 10-8 to 1.66 * 10-7 ohm-cm (at 20°C) |
6.5 * 10-5 ohm-cm ‡ |
‡ at 8% nominal density
Uses
- Liquid cooling
- Air cooling
- Heat exchangers
- Board level electronics cooling
- Power electronics
as well as
- EMI shielding
- Impact absorption
- Acoustic dampening
- Supporting catalytic reactions
- Filtration
Production process
Pure copper powder is mixed with a carbonate powder and compacted. It is then sintered, heating it enough to make the particles of copper powder bond to each other without melting. This forms a matrix of copper ligaments, in between which is the carbonate powder. After cooling the carbonate is either dissolved away in water and recycled or decomposed using heat.
The carbonate is chosen to have a decomposition temperature higher than the melting point of copper, and can be one or more of a range of widely available carbonates such as calcium, magnesium, potassium or sodium carbonate. The precise choice of carbonate is influenced by the melting point, the size of the particles and their solubility in liquids.
-
Copper particles are mixed with carbonate particles -
The mixture is compacted to shape -
The mixture is heated to a temperature of approximately 1000°C, causing the copper to bond. -
The carbonate particles are thermally decomposed or dissolved away. The product is then finished and passed to Quality Control.
Please click here to see catalogue sizes and availability.
