The performances of a novel foaming agent used in the preparation process of aluminum foams were investigated, and the effects of some factors, such as addition of the foaming agent, foaming temperature on the porosity, and appearance of aluminum foams were also discussed. Experimental results show that the novel foaming agent has a wide decomposition temperature range and a mild decomposed rate; the foaming agent has the ability to enhance the viscosity of aluminum melt, as a result, an extra viscosifier such as Ca or SiC_p is unnecessary while using this foaming agent; the bubble-free zone in material decreases and the foaming efficiency increases with the increase of foaming agent; the bubble-free zone disappears and the foaming efficiency is near 100% when the addition of foaming agent is more than 1.4wt%; the porosity of the aluminum foam increases with the increase of foaming agent when the addition of foaming agent is less than 2.2wt%.