Abstract To improve thermal performance, the wettability effect on pool boiling heat transfer using copper foam is experimentally studied. A surface oxidation and chemical modification method is employed to modify copper foam surface’s wettability. After wettability treatment, the copper foam surface is covered with nanosheet. The average contact angle on 50 PPI super-hydrophobic and super-hydrophilic copper foam surface is 148.7° and nearly 0°, respectively. An experimental platform regarding the thermal performance of subcooled pool boiling heat transfer for deionized water on copper foam with a modified wettability surface is conducted. Results showed that the super-hydrophilic copper foam’s surface achieves better boiling heat transfer performance in a medium- or high-heat flux region (q ≥ 20 W⋅cm−2), while super hydrophobic copper foam surface shows a better performance when q