William Compel

Overview

Metal foams are desirable for applications such as high-power laser targets and catalysis. Our project set out to synthesize metal foams via additive manufacturing of metallopolymer materials. Metallopolymer nanoparticle networks were synthesized, cast into molds, and sintered to produce metal foams. However, we determined 1) the materials expanded too much due to water content, and 2) they readily oxidize, even within an inert atmosphere. The resulting sintered materials were brittle and deemed unusable as metal foams.

Impact on Mission

Although the metal foam synthesis was not successful, our results expanded Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's expertise in metal foams and enhanced the Laboratory's core competencies in advanced materials and manufacturing and in high-performance computing, simulation, and data science.