7. Electrical properties

7.1 Materials used

The structures chosen for their electrical properties are open-structure metal foams of the sponge type.

Their very high specific surface area has been widely used, notably in the industrialization of nickel foams used in storage batteries.

Due to their large number of contact points, foams also have an impact on the quality of electrical contacts, particularly at high currents. The use of a highly specific silver-based foam (see figure 27 ) offers a significant improvement in the quality of copper-to-copper contact at high currents.