Fabrication of porous high-purity iron with directional pores by continuous zone melting technique

Lotus-type porous iron rods were fabricated by continuous zone melting technique under the pressure of 2.5 MPa of hydrogen, using iron with three different purities: 99.5%, 99.9% and 99.999%. It was found that the pore size in lotus iron with high purity (99.999% pure) is much larger than that in lotus iron with lower purity (99.5% and 99.9% pure), while the porosity in lotus iron with high purity is lower than that in lotus iron with lower purity. The transfer velocity does not affect the porosity in all lotus iron, but may affect the pore size; the pore diameter decreases with increasing transfer velocity. Thus, it is apparent that the purity of iron significantly affects the pore morphology and the impurities in iron serve as the nucleation sites of pores to increase the pore number density and also suppress the growth of pores due to slower diffusion of hydrogen