Nickel powder carbonila 123, atomized powder and a mixture of the two were used as raw materials for the production of capillary structures. The best results were obtained using a mixture of 73% vol. atomized / 27% vol. carbonila powders.
The powder mixture presented a satisfactory porosity level (@50%), good mechanical resistance and low roundness for using in capillary pumps. An electronic image analyzer was used to characterize the pores showing a accumulative pore size distribution with a D90 value 16mm.
Further experiments are also planned for other geometry wicks, in order to improve the performance of the capillary pumps for space application.