Foam stabilization by aluminum powder

•Pure Al can be foamed by the addition of Al powder in the melt.•Al powder addition improves stabilization as well as uniform dispersion of TiH2.•Oxide layer and clusters located in the cell wall were resulted from Al powder addition.•These oxides contributed towards foam stabilization. In this study, it was shown that aluminum powder can be used as stabilizing particles for the fabrication of aluminum foams by melt route. When Al powder was mixed with the TiH2 before adding into the melt, it also acted as dispersing agent for the TiH2 thus further improving the structure of the foams. Stirring during powder mixing also contributed towards foam stability by introducing oxides into the melt. The oxides were examined using SEM/EDS and oxygen analyzer.