UC San Diego

Porous iron or steel structures can be useful as light- weight materials for transportation and structural applications. We have created such porous iron metallic structures by utilizing a composite of Fe2O3 nanoparticles(NPs), poly(methyl methacrylate)(PMMA) beads and polyethylene glycol(PEG) binder resin. Final optimized porous iron structure contains micro-pores of 15-20 µm size and nano-pores of 100-500 nm with strong connections between Fe grains. The results indicate that further efforts to develop advanced lightweight and strong materials may warrant potential applications such as bulletproof materials for helmets, light-weight vehicles, and for porous rocket engine