My PhD thesis - Production of Aluminium Foams using Calcium Carbonate as a foaming agent


Conscious that this has become a little hard to find online, I thought it'd be worth posting a link to my PhD thesis, Production of Aluminium Foam using Calcium Carbonate as a Foaming Agent, from the Cambridge years, online.  Because research is frankly no use unless people can access and build on it, and there's a fair bit in here about aluminium foams that's still interesting and relevant.

 

This was the first time that anyone had spent any real time looking into calcium carbonate as a way of making foams, and to cut a long story short it turned out to be a very cheap and cost effective way of doing it - because the gas produced was (oxidising) carbon dioxide rather than the more widely used (reducing) hydrogen gas, it made a thin layer of alumina on the aluminium cell walls and in doing so hugely stabilised the molten foam.  This transformed what had previously been a pretty unstable production process, and meant that foams could be made on a far more industrial basis, with smaller cells.

The document is a whisker under 200 pages, and if you're printing it you'll be better off doing it in colour, for the (many) diagrams to make sense.  Do feel free to cite it - the British Library citation reference is linked here.  I'm still always happy to answer questions on it, though I don't work in this field any more so my memory's frankly pretty rusty on the subject! 

See also...

Metal Foams & how to make them

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This is a quick guide to making metal foams - mostly aluminium foams.  It's drawn from one of the introduction chapters of my 2004 PhD thesis (the full version, with sources and experimental processes, is free to download  here ). There are lots of different ways of making foams, with different levels of complexity. Aluminium is the most commonly made foam, because it's light and easy to work with - though some of these processes can work with other metals.    This summary looks at a huge range of 'metal foams'.  When thinking about ways to make a foam there's a lot to consider:
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Chemical Safety Symbols

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A guide to meanings of common chemical safety/hazard symbols (a.k.a. warning labels, Danger symbols, Chemical safety labels...).  These are the European/international standard; I originally put them online as they didn't seem to be anywhere else; they seem to still be popular judging by the number of people who read this so I've carried them over to blogger as a bit of a public service...  Click on the images to enlarge , for printable label size and suitable for downloading. Feel free to  use these pictures.  Poisonous The poison symbol is self-explanatory. Whereas most chemicals are fairly dangerous if ingested or inhaled, many of these are dangerous even on contact. Environmental hazard Relatively rare with laboratory chemicals (most of which pose some environmental hazard if not got rid of correctly), these require  particular  care to be taken on disposal. Corrosive Will destroy or irreversibly damage another substance with which it comes in contac
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Punting guide to the River Cam

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A very old guide to punting from Cambridge to Grantchester - picking out some of the highlights.  Not especially useful but it seemed a shame to lose it.   The Punt Pool All punt trips using St John's college punts start (and hopefully end) here. Note the swan nest on the island in the spring (sometimes populated with rare black swans, imported from New Zealand and only usually seen in St James' park in London). The Bin Brook A little-known tributary of the River Cam; it is shallow and muddy.  It has been known for Johnians and lost tourists to punt down here. That said, it isn't exactly one of the highlights of Cambridge.   Downstream You can't go much further than Jesus Green without permission to use the lock, as the river below is infested with boaties and houseboats.  It is puntable (albeit quite deep) and a bit of an adventure.  The Wren Bridge There's an engraving of third court, with the bridge in it, on one of the piers facing the bridge of sighs.
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Caius House, Battersea - rebirth of a youth club

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Back when I lived in North Battersea, I grew a bit curious about an old (and rather run down) church, lost in a tangle of industrial units and light warehousing in the unfashionable bit of Battersea. As a bit of out-of-place Victoriana it was a bit of an architectural curiosity, that seemed to have survived long after all its neighbours were bombed, demolished or redeveloped between the 1940s and 1980s. Caius House (variously known as Caius House, Caius Mission, Caius House Church and Caius College Mission Church) was on Holman Road in Battersea.
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