In the Korean Institute of Metals and Materials that is one of the largest academic societies in the Korean engineering industry (held on Apr. 24, 2014 in Daegu Convention Center), the graduate students Hye-ji Park, Hyeon-gyeong Jo, and Myeong-geun Park of the School of Advanced Materials Engineering in Kookmin University (academic advisor: Hui-man Choi) was awarded an honorable prize in the technical category with the work ‘Three-dimensionally structured Cu, Ni foams with sub-micron pores through the interference of light.’ The event is a material structure photo award supervised by the Korean Institute of Metals and Materials and amidst the fierce competition on structure photos that are recognized in terms of academic aspect or technical development related to materials, the winners are selected and awarded with excellent prize, honorable prize, and encouragement prize.

This work was submitted by producing 3-dimensional porous metal framework that is formed with nanopores through a new and innovative approach in cooperation with the research team of KAIST’s Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering. In utilization of 3D nano-patterning technique (proximity-field nanopatterning – Chang-ui Ahn of KAIST: Academic advisor Seok-wu Jeon), 3D aligned nanopores were produced at the SU-8 photoresist and through electroless metal plating, copper and nickel were deposited on the 3D nano-porous polymer template to successfully produce copper and nickel foams with pore size in hundreds of nanometers. The material structure photo that was derived as a result was submitted to the Material Structure Photo Award in the Korean Institute of Metals and Materials and it was awarded the honorable prize. The produced copper and nickel porous structure is expected to be used in the field of energy electrode in the future.