Porous Structure and Fractal Characteristics of Metal Impregnated Graphite Material

To quantitatively describe the pore structure of obtained graphite/metal porous materials and study the influence of pore structure on impregnating process, the causes of unimpregnated hole were analyzed based on the formation mechanism of the graphite porous materials, and the pore structure was studied using fractal theory. The results show that micro-pore structure of the graphite/metal porous materials has typical fractal characteristics. The fractal dimension of matrix ranges from 1.80 to 1.85, the fractal dimension of pores from 1.55 to 1.65, the fractal dimension of impregnated metal from 1.50 to 1.55, and the fractal dimension of unimpregnated area from 1.42 to 1.60. The fractal dimensions indicate the heterogeneity of the micro-pore structure and the porosity shows similar changes to the fractal dimension using the mercury injection test. Consequently, the fractal dimensions can be used to characterize the porosity of graphite/metal porous materials.