Metal Foils

Metal Foils List

Metal foils are thin sheets extended from metal, usually by hammer forging or rolling. Metal foils are made of ductile materials such as aluminum, copper, tin, gold and the others. In general, the more malleable the metal, the thinner the metal foil can be made. In general, metal foils tend to bend under their own weight and tear easily. Metal foils made of different metals have different properties and can be selected according to the needs. Due to the diversity of alternative metal materials, the obtained metal foils have various properties, which makes them widely used in many fields.

Applications:

• Supercapacitors filed: Supercapacitors, also known as electrochemical capacitors, are a new type of energy storage device, which have been greatly developed in recent years. Charge is stored in the electrode through ion adsorption or redox Faraday reaction. With the advantages of low density, high specific strength, high specific stiffness, good low temperature performance, good corrosion resistance and the others, metal foils can be used as a new structural material with high performance for supercapacitors. Furthermore, the supercapacitors manufactured by metal foils have high energy density.
• Lithium ion battery field: With the rapid development of portable electronic products and the popularization of mobile communication, the development of lithium ion battery is also becoming more and more rapid. Metal foils can be applied as the negative current collectors of lithium ion battery, and the demand for metal foil is bound to increase greatly. As the negative current collector, the metal foil has a great influence on the electrochemical performance of lithium ion battery.

Figure 1. Cu foil used in lithium ion battery.

• The others: Metal foils also have been applied in other fields, including electronic shielding field, radiators field, printed boards field, evaporators field and the others.

Classification:

According to the composition, metal foils can be divided into the following categories.

• Fe-Co alloy foil: Fe-Co alloy foil has very high saturation magnetic induction intensity, high permeability, high Curie temperature, low magnetic anisotropy. Fe-Co alloy foil can be used for aircraft that needs to be miniaturization and light-duty. In addition, Fe-Co alloy foil can be applied in the preparation of electrical components used under high temperature. Moreover, Fe-Co alloy foil is also necessary for advanced electromagnet, magnetic lens and small volume relay.
• Fe-Ni alloy foil: Fe-Ni alloy foil has many excellent properties such as corrosion resistance, ductility and high hardness, which is widely used in different industrial fields. In addition, due to the stable magnetism at room temperature, Fe-Ni alloy foil is widely used in the electronics industry as computer storage device.
• Aluminum foil: Aluminum foil has the characteristics of light weight, good corrosion resistance, easy to be shaped, good antimagnetic performance, and it has certain application in electronic product industry.
• The others: There are many other types of metal foils, such as copper foil, gold foil, nickel foil, magnesium alloy foil and the others.

Production processes:

The common preparation methods of metal foils include forging method, chemical vapor deposition, powder rolling method, electrolysis method and the others.

Figure 2. Preparation of metal foil by chemical vapor deposition.

References

1. Hou C, Lang X Y, Han G F, et al. Integrated Solid/Nanoporous Copper/Oxide Hybrid Bulk Electrodes for High-performance Lithium-Ion Batteries[J]. Scientific Reports, 2013, 3.
2. Procházka, Pavel, Mach J , Bischoff D, et al. Ultrasmooth metallic foils for growth of high quality graphene by chemical vapor deposition.[J]. Nanotechnology, 2014, 25(18):185601.