Nickel Felt – The Best Electrolytic Electrode Compared to Nickel Foam & Nickel Mesh

Nickel fiber felt is a type of felt made from finely spun nickel fibers with unique properties, including high electrical and thermal conductivity and chemical resistance performance and corrosion resistance performance, high strength to support properties. It is widely used in a variety of industrial and commercial applications, such as insulating materials, gaskets, heat insulation panels, and other mechanical components.

Nickel fiber felt is made according to foreign technical standards, using micron-grade pure nickel fibers, through a special felt-laying process and ultra-high-temperature vacuum sintering process. Compared with nickel mesh or nickel sintered porous plate, nickel fiber felt has good three-dimensional mesh porous structure, and features high porosity, large specific surface area, uniform pore size distribution, strong corrosion resistance performance, good water permeability, good heat dissipation, high current density, low voltage, stable performance, longer service life, etc. These advantages make nickel fiber felts perform well in a variety of applications.

High porosity nickel fiber felts are three-dimensional nickel felts developed by chemical processes using metallic nickel fibers. It is a new material with light weight, flexibility, adjustable porosity, and felt.

3 pieces of nickel fiber felts stacked in sequence

A closed drawing of a metal sintered felt hydrogen electrolytic production file.

In addition, nickel fiber felt is an excellent diffusion medium in hydrogen fuel cells, which helps with efficient proton exchange membrane (PEM) water electrolysis. For detailed specifications and practical applications of nickel fiber felt and stainless steel felt in hydrogen production by electrolysis, please refer to our PDF guide.

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Preparation Process

Nickel fiber is made by imported felt paver through air flow paving method. By adjusting a variety of complex process parameters, the nickel fiber felt is uniform and free of defects such as fiber bundles and fiber clumps. The unit weight can be controlled as required.

Wire drawing is a crucial step in the whole process. The preparation technology using the bundle method of wire drawing is characterized by uniform wire diameter, easy to continuous produce, and high quality-price ratio compared with the technologies of melt spinning, mechanical cutting, and monofilament drawing. It solves several technical problems in the bundling process. Nickel fibers with different wire diameters from 6–40 μm and nickel fiber properties can be produced to meet additional felt requirements.
Fiber cutting is performed on specific cutting machines and can be cut to different specifications, e.g. lengths of less than 33 mm. featuring uniform cutting lengths and high productivity.

Workflow of nickel fiber felts production

Features

High temperature insulation material. Because of its excellent thermal stability, it can withstand temperatures up to 1000 °C without significant degradation. It is also corrosion resistant and has good mechanical properties, making it a useful material in harsh environments.
Catalyst carrier for a variety of chemical reactions. The high surface area and porosity of the material make it an effective substrate for the deposition of catalytic materials, which can improve the efficiency and selectivity of the reaction.
Diffusion medium for hydrogen fuel cells. Used as an anode gas diffusion layer (GDL) in proton exchange membrane (PEM) water electrolysis.
Various applications. It can be made in various shapes and sizes, and can also be coated or impregnated with other materials to enhance its properties.

Specification

Shape: Round piece, square piece, customized shapes, and filter elements
Material: Nickel or alloy on request
Micron rating: 3–100 μm
Working temperature: 800–1200 °C
Working pressure: < 3 MPa
Purity: ≥ 99.5%
Thickness: 0.25–5 mm
Porosity: 50% – 94%
Size: 0.5 m × 0.5 m × 0.5 mm (can be customized upon request)

Properties

Properties Comparison Between Nickel Fiber Felt & Nickel Foam
Properties	Nickel Fiber Felt	Nickel Foam
Thickness (mm)	1.0–3.0	1.2–3.0
Porosity (%)	95–98	95–98
Unit Weight (g/m²)	300–1000	350–1000
Apertures (μm)	100–700	300–800
Specific Surface Area (cm²/cm³⁾	(0.5–2.0) × 105	50
Tensile Strength (MPa)	5–8	0.1–1.5
Elongation (%)	≥ 8	≥ 5–7

Application

Hydrogen production
Aerospace engineering
Medical & pharmaceutical
Hydraulics & fuels
Nuclear emissions
Food & beverage
HEPA & ULPA filtration
Filtration of powders, polyamide, polypropylene, nylon, etc.