Sintered nickel capillary wicks for loop heat pipe (LHP) with controllable porosity and pore characteristics were prepared by salt-leaching pore forming method. Experiments were performed to investigate the thermal conductivity of the wicks in both dry mode and wet mode using the transient plane source method (TPS). Results show that the thermal conductivity of porous wicks is influenced not only by porosity, but also the pore size distribution. As a comparison, sintered nickel wicks with microcrystalline cellulose as pore-forming agents show irregular properties. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.